She Has My Hart
by Carlypso
Summary: Tony meets Heather at a motorbike expo, and he can't seem to leave her alone! Unlike most women she is uninterested, but luckily for Heather her family loves Tony, and he continues to show up at her house.
1. Chapter 1

I was irritated, very Irritated, as I sat at a small table with my feet resting crossed on the scratched clean face of the white plastic table. It was very apparent that the table had been used more then once. But it wouldn't surprise me, they did after all have these bike expos all the time in the city, they most likely used the same tables every year, and here I sat watching people study the six bikes I had entered this year.

Well I didn't enter them, Nana filled out and application and forced me to show up. She was all ways like that; she didn't like any of her grand babies holding back. She wanted me to share my talent with the world, even if I tried to convince her, my 'talent' was only a hobby.

"Maybe you will get noticed, and get a job, you want!" She said smiling to me the day I found out she had forged my signature on the grossly white paper with coffee stains in the left corner. It was common knowledge my family knew I hated my job. Working at a pet shop, was hardly a career.

I pushed my feet off the table studying the torn shoes on my feet and snapping the vibrant blue gum in my mouth. The flavor was long gone by now but I still enjoyed chewing it. Gum was only really useless when it goes soggy, and breaks apart in your mouth. That's when you spit it out.

"Hey Lady, I like your bikes." A little boy piped, his head barely poking over the table. I studied him as he rubbed his messy blond hair, chocolate remnants splattered around his mouth.

"Thanks," I said, leaning my chair back, placing my hands behind my head in a lazy manner. The child studied me, probably waiting for me to say something else. The truth was, I never really knew what to say to kids. Parents got anal when their children talked to strangers, like I would want to take their spoiled little brats.

"I like that one," He said pointing to a red and gold bike, a sudden spark of joy etched in his face. He waited for a few seconds before responding "It's just like Iron Man!" He contemplated.

He was talking about the colors.

The bike had nothing to do with the famous Iron Man. They were my dad's favorite colors, the only reason why I considered painting the bike gold, and red. It was also the only bike I hadn't air brushed any design on. It was simply just red, gold and silver if you counted the engine.

"I assure you, that it has nothing to do with him." I said, snapping my gum once more; I was now suddenly annoyed by this blonde child. Why was he talking to me? Where were his parents?

"I like Iron Man. He's really cool; maybe you should paint him on one of your bikes!" The child chirped, as he stood on his toes to peer at me. Now I was really annoyed, why the hell would I want to paint some super ass hole on the side of one of my bikes?

"Kid, where are your parents?" I asked, swiftly removing my mattered shoes from the plastic table and placing them on the green grass. He stirred for a moment, "I don't know, I lost them by the Harleys."

I sighed rubbing my forehead, children were useless.

"Come on, let's go find them." I murmured, pushing my stiff body up off the plastic blue chair. I held out my hand for the child to take, as we both ventured out into the abyss of human bodies.

"I heard Tony Stark was here today!" He chimed, watching his feet as we walked.

"Is that so?" I asked, walking towards the display of Harleys. I didn't know how many they had on display, they had a lot more bikes then me, but my bikes were far better. Mass production didn't all ways mean better.

"Yeah, you know Tony Stark is super smart right? He is the coolest super hero EVER!" The kid shouted into the crowed. People were staring, this wasn't my kid, holy crap was I embarrassed.

"Do you see your parents?" I asked, pulling him out of his chatter of the awesome Iron Man, best super hero ever.

"Nope!" He tugged on my hand as he happily bounced around.

"Are you sure they didn't leave you?" I asked as he looked up at me with curious eyes.

"Why would they do that?" He asked, his messy blond hair swirling around his head.

"It was a joke." I explained, as he studied me in awe.

"I don't get it." He gasped.

"So what do your parents look like?" I studied the crowed, being only 5'5" it was hard to see over the vast amount of tall men.

"My Daddy, looks like he's having a baby, or that's what Mommy says." He chimed, his mouth running miles a minute. Did this child ever stop talking?

"Charlie? Charlie, where are you?" A loud, fat balding man with a pony tail yelled running threw the crowed. A lanky women following behind him, she looked equally as panicked. The child on the other hand continued to talk about all the awesome things his Mother said about his Daddy when he wasn't around.

"Over here!" I yelled, rising my free hand in the air. The couple stopped studying me for a second. I was standing in a pair of torn jeans, a white tank top, and 20's style hair and make up, holding a very chatty child by the hand. I brushed a strand of dark black hair out of my face,

"Charlie!" The women screamed running towards the two of us. Her voice was a mix between relief and terror. I guessed, I would be upset to if I saw my child in the hands of a stranger. She quickly wrapped her arms around her child pulling him close to her chest as if she would never let go.

"Mom, this lady has a bike that looks like Iron Man!" He smiled, releasing his hand from mine to push his crying mother away.

"Thank you so much!" She cried, as she looked up at me gobs of tears spilling from her eyes. Her dirty blond hair was mattered as she swatted it away from her wide red puffy eyes.

"You should see her bike mom, it's really cool!" Charlie continued as his mother grabbed his small hand tugging him towards his father who was rubbing his balding head in relief.

"If you're going to see anything, it will be the four walls in your room young man. You have no idea how worried we were about you!" Charlie's father ranted as he grabbed his son's hand gently, as a family they all made their way threw the crowed of people.

Great now I'm bored again. I sighed tucking the stray strand of black hair back into its proper place and making my way back to my booth which sat on the out skirts of the expo. Hopefully this weekend would go by fast so I could get back to building a new bike.

What felt like days later, I sat in the same stupid chair, talking to very few people!

I grew even more irritated by the commotion my bike had caused in the matter of 4 hours. What started off as a small trickle of people coming to see my work ended up being a large group of people!

_"That bike looks like Iron Man."_

_"Oh look honey, that bike looks like Iron Man."_

Iron Man this, Iron Man that. My bike does NOT look like Iron Man. It only had the same colors. I was no honestly considering destroying the bike. I spat my gum in the air and attempted to catch it with my mouth. The bright blue piece of gum descended quickly hitting me on the nose before falling to the ground.

"So much for that idea!" I said out loud, I placed my hands in my pockets and rolled my head on the back of the chair as I studied the canapé above me. It was blue, and had large stains on them. They were probably grease stains, or something more interesting. My mind was blank from ideas.

* * *

"Tony what are we doing here?" Pepper asked, as they pushed through a crowd of people. Most people stopped and stared, because he was after all famous, and it was very rare for him to appear in such a public place. Females all cooed at him, hoping that he would come over and talk to them. It was typical, and would be abnormal if women didn't swoon over him.

"Looking for a bike!" Tony replied simply browsing threw the massive amounts of bikes.

"No, you're avoiding that meeting we have this afternoon!" Pepper snapped, typing something into her phone. A small smile spread across his face.

"And why would I do that?" He asked stopping at a green Harley and studying it simply before moving on to the next one. The engine was nothing compared to his re-built cars. Besides, these bikes could never top the speed of his suit. He really didn't have a need for one. But this wasn't going to stop him from buying another bike, to add to his small collection.

"Because, you're Tony Stark." Pepper said, simply as she once again started typing something into her phone. Tony smiled, passing through a group of cooing girls. They were all a lot older then him, and he had no interest. At least not in these types of women. Biker chicks were one of the scarcest looking women on earth. Most of them were tattooed all to shit, smoked, and were more then likely ugly.

"Hey! Did you see the bike modeled after Iron Man?" A teen asked his friend, as they passed Tony. Both boys looked as if they were under the influence of something. They were both hunched over, and talked in a low monotone voice, dragging out each of their words slowly.

"Yeah, can you say sick? The dude has some nice bikes!" The other one said in a wispy voice, shifting his dark hair out of his eyes, with a long lanky arm.

They had caught Tony's interest.

"Pepper, can you get me a drink?" Tony asked, softly as he continued studying the bikes around him, the plan to ditch her forming in quickly in his brain. He really, really didn't want to go to that meeting.

"Yes, Mr. Stark!" She said before walking towards the nearest vendor with great difficulty. Her heals were sinking into the ground, and it made it quite difficult for her to walk. He would have teased her about this, if he wasn't so distracted.

"Can I help you Mr. Stark?" A large bald man asked, wiping his hands on a greasy yellow towel. Pepper was too far away by now to hear anything, so Tony swerved on the heels of his shoes.

"Which way to the Iron Man bike?" Tony asked, with a large smile on his face. The giant man pointed towards his destination and he quickly made his way towards the bike he wanted to see. He didn't want to see it that badly, he just wanted to get away from Pots, and his company meetings.

* * *

I hated this place, and I still had the rest of the expo to go! I was sick about hearing about my bike, which was now happily labeled as the 'Iron Man' bike.

This pissed me off, it wasn't an Iron Man bike, and in fact I disliked Iron Man with a passion! The guy was over rated. But I did have to admit that the bike was starting to look similar to the famous Iron Man; it was my stupid idea to paint it hot rod red, and gold.

People were happily swarming my bikes like the mindless zombies they were, taking pictures, and asking questions, as I unhappily snapped my gum.

_ Snap, Snap. Pop, pop._

_Snap, Snap. Pop, pop._

_Snap, Snap. Pop, pop.  
_  
The air was suddenly filled with silence, then squeals of sixteen year old girls. I ignored the loud rumbles of humans by my bikes and continued snapping my gum.  
_  
Snap, Snap. Pop, pop._

_Snap, Snap. Pop, pop._

_Snap, Snap. Pop, pop._

"It's Tony Stark." One of the blond teens squealed as she leaned forward, to get a better look at the celebrity I couldn't see. Loud mummers of sixteen year old girls filled the air. I simply tired to ignore it, if Tony Stark was there, then what ever. I didn't care. Hopefully he would go away soon.

"What is he doing?" The blond spoke jumping up and down, trying to peer over the small crowed of people. Her blond locks bounced with her.

"I don't know, looks like he's studying that bike." The brunette mumbled loudly, as she too attempted to peer at what ever was going around my stupid bike. It was official; I was going to tear it apart!

"Excuse me, Darling?" An unfamiliar voice asked, I rolled my eyes glancing at the man who was standing in front of me. He was dressed in the most expensive clothing money could buy, and he was wearing light orange tinted sunglasses on his face. If anything the man looked like an idiot.

"Can I talk to the man who built these bikes." He said simply; as I continued to some what ignore him. I felt my body stiffen, the man had only been there for twenty seconds and he was already irritating.

"The man?" I asked, as he flipped open his black cell phone looking at the small screen.

"Yes, is that too hard for you or should I come back?" He asked, sending me a glance that clearly showed he thought I was stupid. I angrily removed my feet from the table. Slamming them on the ground, with such force that I could have broken something.

"Yeah, just a minute!" I snapped, standing up and removing my self from the tent.

_Tony Stark is an asshole. _

When I was out of view I pulled out my wallet, checking to see how much money I had on me. The notes inside were wrinkled, and the wallet its self was made from pink duct tape. A friend had made if for me a few years back, and I had just been too lazy to go out and buy a real wallet.

"Hey kid." I snapped, waving him over to me. The boy looked at me confused before stalking over to me swinging his large arms. He was about 18 years old, and covered in grease and sweat.

"Wanna' make fifty bucks?" I asked, he simply nodded, his brown hair falling into his dark brown eyes. I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and he tensed at my touch. It wasn't everyday a stranger wraps their arm around you.

"See that man over there?" I said pointing to Tony who was now back to studying 'Iron Bike', a large group of girls hovering over him, whispering god knows what in each others ears.

"You mean Tony Stark?" He asked, wiping his hands on his pants. The smell of motor oils lay heavily on his dark skin. He was now more relaxed, that I was hanging over his shoulder. The grime on his skin would more then likely leave stains my white shirt.

I sighed, before continuing, "Yeah, Tony…Go over there and tell him that you built my bikes." I snapped, rolling my tongue around in my mouth.

"Tell him what?" The boy asked surprised pulling away from me. His face was a pale white.

"You heard me, Go over there and tell him you built the bikes, because according to Stark, women can't build bikes!" I said slapping the fifty in his open hand. The kid stood flabbergasted as I pushed him towards the famous ass hole that was still standing beside my bike.

"Um okay?" He asked confused, and started walking on his own towards Stark. I watched for a second to make sure my fifty wasn't going to walk away. Slowly the boy confronted Stark who looked surprised that a 18 year old boy had said something to him. I happily smiled before walking away to find food. I was suddenly hungry.

* * *

Sun was brightly shining in my eyes, so I used one of my hands to shield them. I had to remember to bring my sunglasses for the rest of the weekend.

"Can I get a ginger ale, and some fries?" I asked looking up at a fat man, he grunted before walking away from the chip truck window and preparing my food. Closing my one eye I removed my hand from my face so I could dig threw my wallet for some money to pay for my late lunch. I pulled out a ripped and crumbling twenty, smoothing it out as best as possible. I studied that bill intensely; someone had used tape to hold the middle together. As ugly as it was, it was interesting, and I found my self wondering how many people had used it, how many people had died after they used it, how many people had gotten it stolen, and how many people snorted coke with it and suddenly wished I the thought hadn't occurred in my mind.

"Cute trick, can you do anything else?" A male voice asked from behind, I sighed, slouching my shoulders. Why the fuck was he following me? Why was he even talking to me?

"Yeah, I can disappear." I said, as the large man in the truck came back handing me a small carton of fries, and a pop. I handed the man my money and walked away mumbling for him to keep the change.

A small laugh was heard behind me, soon followed soft by foot steps.

"Look what ever you want I'm not interested." I snapped, stopping allowing a small family walk in front of me and continued on to my way to my crappy booth.

"I want to buy your bike." He said behind me, as he continued to follow me.

"It's not for sale." I said, weaving through people, most of which had stopped to stare at Stark who was trailing behind me like a lost puppy.

"I can pay any price you ask for!" He said, trying to catch up to me. Which he easily did, he was a hell of a lot taller then me, and he used his longer legs to an advantage.

"Not for sale!" I snapped, quickening my pace.

"Then can I order one?" He asked, grabbing my shoulder to gently turning my body towards him. My eyes met his; they were blue, pretty for a man.

"No." I said simply, he puckered his lips in deep thought. I stood there with my food in my hands suddenly not hungry any more thanks to Stark. I could never eat when being pestered, or when I was under a great deal of stress. I threw my fries into a near by trash can before walking away.

"Can I higher you then?" He yelled after me, by this point I was more then annoyed.

"Good Bye Stark." I said pushing through people who muttered and chatted away about the Stark following me around the Expo grounds.


	2. Chapter 2

**Looking for a beta.**

**

* * *

**

I never really understood men romantically, and maybe if I did I wouldn't have had so many failed relationships. It also made me wonder if I was more aware of the XY chromosomes if I could avoid all possible association with them.

Like my mother told me, men don't think with their brain, they think with their dangly bits. They thought with their 'dangly bits' because my mom went dam near catatonic when you mentioned the word penis, or any other private part for that matter.

Sexual education to my mother when I was growing up, was her tossing me a book and expecting me to read it, that and pretending I was a virginal saint. While my grandmother on the other hand could talk about sex like there was no tomorrow. My grandmother was the one, who taught me everything I needed to know because it was common knowledge in the family that she had many partners over the years. This was possibly the reason why my mother was so uptight about the 'sex' thing.

* * *

"No!" I snapped as I grinded my teeth. I could feel a migraine settling into my skull. Day three of the expo had proven to be even more of an irritation then the first or second day. You could thank Tony Stark and the fucking press for that. Mostly I blamed Tony Stark; he seemed like a very good excuse for all my current problems.

"Oh come on, one night won't kill you." Tony said, as he flashed me his irritably white teeth. I clicked my tongue in annoyance lifting the magazine I was holding to block my view, covering my face from everyone.

"You're right it wont, but I might kill my self." I said, flipping the page with flawless skill. The table shifted slightly as Tony pushed his hip off of it, he had been leaning against the table for at least twenty minutes now.

"And why not?" he asked, grabbing the magazine and pushing it down so he could see my face. Aggravated, I looked at him chewing on the bright blue gum in my mouth. It wasn't hard to figure out that Tony Stark was a mastermind at charming women. That was after all what he was trying to do with me, but I have had my fair share of sleazy, charming boyfriends in the past. His tricks went going to work on me.

"I like women!" I stated plainly, pulling the magazine from his large hand covering my face once again. He chucked, pushing the magazine away from my face. I groaned, rolling my eyes, in irritation. Maybe Tony Stark didn't understand body langue, because he wasn't getting the message. I was not interested in anything he had to offer.

"I know for a fact that you like men!" He said, tugging the magazine from my hands, and scanning the page I was reading. I slammed my hands on my legs loudly, before reaching forward and yanking the magazine out of his hands.

"I was reading that!" I said, folding the cover back and continued to read from where I left off, ignoring anything he had to say to me, which apparently, was a lot!

"How can you read this crap?" He asked, snatching the magazine out of my hands. I clenched my fists tightly, letting out a frustrated groan of disapproval. I could only imagine how red my face was, and I was more then positive that Tony could see the redness flushed across my face.

"Its not crap! It has valuable information!" I snapped, ripping the magazine away from his hands. If he took it from me again, I was going to give him a beating, and hopefully someone would record it and post it on Youtube!

"What kind of valuable information could you get from, _that?_" he snapped, pointing to the magazine in my hands. I slammed the magazine down on the table, crossing my arms over the bottom of it, continuing to read the article that was now taking me more then twenty minutes to read.

"Lot's of stuff." I muttered, resting my cheek in my hand as I continued to read. The table shifted from Tony's weight as he leaned against the table harshly. I grunted when the side of the table jammed against my chest.

"I highly doubt there is anything in that magazine with valuable information!" He said, crossing his arms as I looked up at him. He wasn't wearing the stupid orange sunglasses he was wearing the first day he harassed me, instead today he was wearing a pair of black shades that suited him much better. The outfit he was wearing was also more casual, so I could only guess he had no where to go today. Which meant the famous Pepper Pots wouldn't be dragging him away anytime soon.

Bored I flipped to an article I read earlier and begin to read out loud the small inscription on the page, "A man will subconsciously position his belly button towards the woman in the room he is most attracted to, even if he's speaking with someone else."

I looked up from my magazine, flashing him a smile. He face was blank as he thought of a smart comeback. Bored I rolled up the magazine and jammed the end to where his belly button should be.

"You, Mr. Stark are attracted to me!" I said lamely, watching him scrunch his face up in what appeared to be annoyance. His bellybutton was after all pointed in my general direction.

"I think most men are!" he pointed out lamely, like it was some obvious fact that everyone knew. I highly doubted most men were attracted to me, for a number of reasons. I highly doubted I had amazing qualities you wanted to see in your wife.

"You want to see my lady bits Mr. Stark?" I asked watching the smile spread on his face. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best thing that has come out of my mouth, but maybe it would annoy him.

"Only if you let me!" He said, flashing me his teeth with a raised eyebrow. I could feel my stomach churn in distaste, why were men such pigs? Oh that's right they only thought with their 'dangly bits'. People shot us annoyed glances.

"Is there anything in your mind that doesn't relate back to you screwing something senseless?" I asked shooting him a dirty look, leaning back in my chair, arms crossed and feet pressed against the table top.

"Sometimes, but right now I'm thinking about what it would be like to screw you senseless!" he said with a smirk, I don't understand why this was a surprise to me, but I had managed to lose my balance, and tipped the chair over slamming into the ground. Tony was at my side in an instant helping me off the ground.

I could feel the burning in my cheeks as I pulled my elbow away from his warm hands. "You're disgusting!" I spat, stepping a comfortable distance away from him.

The smirk once again spread across his face, I would never understand why women found him, sexually attractive. "You started it!" He said, running a hand threw his hair, the smile still etched on his face. I groaned rubbing my upper arm. It was a habit I had, since I couldn't rub my face, my eyeliner, and my colored in eye-brows would smudge.

"What do I have to do to get you to leave me alone?" I whined, pulling the knot of my red bandanna at the back of my head, making it tighter.

"Go to dinner with me." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders and looking away from me like it was no big deal. I wanted to rip my hair out, why couldn't he just leave me alone.

"If I go out to dinner with you, will you leave me alone?" I asked, slouching my shoulders. He tilted his head towards me. I could only imagine the things that were reeling threw his disgusting man brain.

"Only if you want me to!" He said flashing me his teeth. I could feel my stomach churn in distaste. This jerk actually thought that he could charm me into wanting spend more time with him. My face twisted up into a sneer that I shot towards Tony harshly.

"Do we have a deal Stark?" I snapped, watching him fiddle with his phone. I swear he was worse then a high school girl. I didn't even know where my cell phone was, and by the time I found it there would be at least 80 messages on it from my crazy ex-boyfriend.

"Yes!" He said, sliding his phone in his pocket. He had some cheesy grin on his face, and looked more like a 12 year old boy who had received his first kiss or something.

* * *

When I was little my Mom married my step father Jack Bethune, he already had two boys who were a few years older then me, Mark and Lucas. They are now both unhappily married with about 2.5 kids. I honestly hated both of the bastards, but they didn't like me much either. Through most of my childhood, they both would bully me, saying some shit that Mark wasn't my dad, and that meant I wasn't their sister.

Later on my Mother had two more children, Kevin and Steve. Steve was born mentally handicapped, and he honestly is my best friend because Steve didn't care who my dad was, he only cared if he could pick out what colors I painted with or if I spent time with him.

Kevin was still in high school, and he was the kind of kid who spent more time working on his 'art' then with girls. Kevin liked making movies, and often tugged around a video camera and filmed the family. This had more then once led to me beating the shit out of him, I honestly never found pranking people and taping it funny. Especially when you touch my bikes, never ever touch my bikes.

When I was thirteen my mother and step-dad moved the whole family from Canada to California. I guess someone in the family had died and left my step-father a huge farm estate, which was more the big enough for our large family. Mark and Lucas moved out shortly after high school, and I moved out once for about a year, I had to come back because I couldn't afford to live by my self, and have yet to leave again.

"Aren't you a little old to be still living at home?" Mark snapped opening the fridge to pull out a beer. I rolled my eyes, as I pulled skin off the corn and placed the thick leaves in a garbage bag at my feet.

"Aren't you a little old to have a grudge?" I asked simply dropping the ear of the corn into a pot of water. I could hear Mark clear his throat, and slam the fridge door closed. The contents inside shook, and rattled. I loved my Mother, but these Sunday night family dinners had to stop. I was sick of Mark and Lucas parading around like they owned the world because they had kids.

"I'm not the one making up stories." Mark said, throwing his beer bottle cap at me. I shot him a dirty, look. Mark was about 6'1, lanky, with light blond hair, and brown eyes. He was usually clean shaven, and smelled of this shitty clone he bought at Wal-mart.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I snapped, slamming the last ear of corn into the pot. Mark laughed taking a sip of his beer, as he watched me slam the pot onto a burner and flick it on.

"Telling mom, Tony Stark asked you out? Cute, very original, but the thing is I know someone like _him_ would never be interested in you." Mark started to laugh again, as if it were some big ass joke. Mom didn't think it was funny, when she found out I date ditched Tony she freaked, asked me 'what would Jesus do?' I told her, Jesus would have date ditched Tony too, because Jesus liked women. She had pulled out 'the spoon' and smacked my back side. I still had the large purple bruise.

"Believe whatever you want, because you are the last person on earth I would want to impress." I snapped pushing past him and out the porch door. For a moment I was blinded by the bright California sun. My eyes skimmed the vast fenced in fields of our backyard until I spotted Steve playing under a large oak tree by himself. Happily I made my way over to him, hopping the wooden fence.

Steve was fourteen years old, and at the end of summer he was going into his first year of high school. He was excited, and talked about it all the time, because he wanted to be just like Kevin and go to a 'big boy' school.

"Heather, look!" Steve yelled, holding his hand up for me to see. On the back of his hand was a long, and fat green caterpillar. I could feel the corners of my mouth tug into a small smile.

"What do you have there?" I asked sitting onto the ground beside him. He shoved his hand into my face, expecting me to see it better at closer range. I laughed, gently grabbing his hand and guiding it away from my face.

"It looks like you made a friend!" I said gently pulling the creature off his hand and into mine. Steve laughed, watching the caterpillar crawl on over my fingers.

"I think you made a friend too, Heather!" Steve said, brushing his dirty blond hair out of his blue eyes, with the back of his hand. There was small smudges of dirt all over his face which didn't surprise me, Steve was an out doors kind of kid. He liked climbing trees, and playing in mud.

"Want to ask Mom if she will cook him for dinner tonight?" I asked with a laugh, Steve gave me a disapproving look, before gently grabbing the caterpillar away from me.

"That's not funny Heather!" he said, placing the caterpillar on the ground carefully. I laughed softly watching as the creature quickly crawled away.

* * *

Tony had never been stood up before, and he thought that's how other girls he had stood up felt, he figured he could also be completely wrong about the situation because most women were obsessed with him, and date ditching them was probably the end of the world to them.

Disappointed he drove into his garage and turned off his car. With a sigh he pulled him self out of the car and allowed him self to be greeted by Pepper, who had a large smile on her face. Tony couldn't help but notice the small engagement ring wrapped loosely around her finger.

Pepper had been extremely excited that Tony had gone on a date with this Heather character he had taken so much interest in. She had figured it would be the perfect opportunity for Tony to get over their past relationship. She had after all chosen Happy, and was determined to have a very happy, long successful marriage with him.

Heather was the first woman Tony had taken an interest in since the heart break and it wasn't the kind of interest where Tony wanted to 'fuck and chuck' but he wanted to know Heather, be friends with her or more. He had driven her dam near crazy, just like he had with Pepper. In fact Pepper had seen very similar acts of behavior Tony had when he was with her. For example the same crooked smile on his lips when he talked about Heather, even if he didn't talk about her much.

Pepper had dearly hoped that Heather might be 'the one' for Tony, or even the woman that could allow Tony to get over the heart break she had caused him, and possibly help remove the awkwardness Tony felt around Pepper. Pepper still suspected that Tony still had feelings for her, even if he denied it. It made Pepper feel sorry for him and even made her want to hate her self a little. But you couldn't choose who you fall in love with; it was something totally out of your control.

"So, how did it go?" Pepper asked excitedly grasping the clip board in her hands. She wanted to know everything, but when Tony looked up at her she realized there was nothing to be excited about, and awkwardness hung in the air.

"Oh, Tony I'm sorry. What happened?" Pepper asked releasing the grip on her clipboard; she could feel her insides tighten. Tony loosened his tie, before running his hand along the back of his neck.

"Nothing, she didn't show up." He said simply, his eyes staring at the ground. Pepper's stomach dropped, she had known the feeling of being date ditched, it had happened to her once in college. It was partly part of the reason she got so angry when Tony had pulled the move on someone else. She had opened her mouth to say something to Tony when he cut her off.

"I'm going to bed; I'll see you in the morning." he said, silently walking past Pepper. She could only nod her head in agreement and mutter something about good night, sweet dreams.

Once in his room, Tony stripped down into his boxers and stared up at his ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head. Millions of thoughts were running threw his mind, mainly thoughts about how Pepper left him for Happy, and how Heather Hart had left him to look like an idiot in the middle of a fancy restaurant.

He thought that maybe he was just one of those people who never settled down, and that he was destined to live a lonely life. He was sure that one day Pepper would leave him, being a parent was something she looked forward too, and when she had kids she wouldn't be around to baby him.

The thought of Pepper leaving him frustrated him, because he knew as soon as she left he would be even lonelier then he was now. His house would be empty, and he thought it would feel even emptier then when his parents died.

Tony did miss his parents, and the older he became the more questions he wished he asked them. Questions like were you happy, or do you wish you had more children?

He liked to think his parents were happy together, but his father's drinking problem made it hard to distinguish much about there relationship. But he did know one thing, his father, when pretending to be sober would talk about how his mother was 'the one' at parties and dinners.

He would always tell the story with a half cracked smile that the first time he met Maria she wanted nothing to do with him, and it had actually taken him a few tries to get her to go on date with him. His mother would all ways laugh and joke that she only went out on date with him because she felt sorry for him. The story had always gotten a few chuckles.

His thoughts were suddenly whipped back to Heather. She was unlike any woman he had ever met; he knew that the moment he had realized that she was the mastermind behind building the bikes. The prank she had pulled was also very cute.

It was at this moment Tony decided that he was not going to give up on Heather, at least until she filed for a restraining order.

* * *

"Heather, there is a car in the drive way do you know who's it is?" My mother yelled from the front door. Lamely snapped the gum in my mouth, I continued to flip the magazine pages slowly my eyes skimming for subliminal messages.

"No Mom, I don't have any friends remember?" I yelled back, I could hear an angry sigh come from her lips as she slammed the bowl she was stirring down. There was a few seconds of silence before the front screen door creaked open and slammed shut behind her. There was no doubt in my mind the moment of silence was Mom wiping the flower off her apron.

The soft muttering of voices could be heard outside as my mother chatted with someone. I couldn't hear who, or what she was talking about but I didn't care. It wasn't uncommon for people to get lost on the country roads and pull in to ask for directions.

Suddenly the front door swung open and slammed shut, and my grandmother came running into the living room, grabbing my wrist sharply and pulled me off the couch.

"Oh Heather this man is a looker!" She chimed pulling me threw the living room, I struggled trying to pull my arm away from her. How a 79 year old woman was stronger then I, I would never figure out. With a final push she pushed me in front of a window that had its blinds closed.

"Honestly Nana?" I snapped rubbing my wrist as she harshly pulled an opening in the blinds so she could see out of them.

"Shut up Heather, and just look!" She snapped drooling over the man outside. I rolled my eyes sliding my fingers between two slots of the blinds and tugging the thin metal so I could peer out. I could barely see anything, even the car he pulled up in.

"Nana, I don't see anything!" I snapped, pulling my fingers out from the blinds. I could hear her laugh as she tugged the blinds open even wider.

"Come look!" She cooed moving over to make room for me. I had to crouch a little bit since my grandmother was a lot shorter then I. My eyes skimmed the front yard looking for the man she was talking about.

I spotted him a short distance away from his car talking to my mother designer sunglasses covering his face. My stomach suddenly twisted in anger.

"Tony." I hissed pulling away from the window and marching towards the front door slamming the front door open. Both my Mother and Tony both looked at me as I angrily made my way towards them.

"What are YOU doing here?" I snapped, watching a smile curve across his face.

"He dropped by to make sure; YOU were okay after you didn't show up for your date!" My mother said, giving me a very dirty look. I figured she didn't explain to him that I had indeed date ditched him.

"I'm fine, you can leave now!" I hissed grabbing my mothers arm I began to gently tug her towards the house.

"HEATHER!" My mother snapped, harshly pulling her arm out of my grasp. Her cheeks were glowing pink in anger.

"I've invited Tony to spend dinner with us!" She piped, poking her finger harshly into my stomach, I flinched. "You will treat him with respect young lady, and if I hear any different I will give you a spanking. Do you understand?" She snapped placing her hands on her hips.

"Yes Mom, I understand!" I murmured, rubbing my stomach. How sad was it that at the age of twenty-six I was being told by my mother she would spank me?

I felt as if a little but of my pride had been passed over to Tony Stark because if I was even a little bit mean to him, my back side would meet mother's wooden spoon.

"Dinner should be done in a twenty minutes!" She said, and with a nod of her head, she slowly made her way back into the house to make the finishing touches to supper.

"So how have you been?" Tony asked when my mother was out of view. I sharply turned around to look at him, he had his arms crossed and a soft smile was spread across his face.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" I snapped shaking my head in distaste. Before he could respond I turned my heel and quickly made my way inside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Needs to be betaed. **

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I couldn't figure out what was worse; my family was totally in love with Tony, or that they continued to invite him over for Sunday night dinner and he gladly accepted. By the fourth week of Tony showing up everyone in the family had their own opinions about the man. Most of them more positive then what they thought of me.

My Grandmother thought he was attractive, and would often nudge me or point out aspects of Tony that my Grandmother honestly shouldn't be looking at. I would usually roll my eyes and ignore her. If we were lucky, Tony would catch us looking at him. He would usually flash us a cocky smile.

My parents thought he was 'an intelligent, kind, gentleman' and insisted I give him a chance. My Grandmother always agreed with this pep talk and would point out physical features of Tony she found appropriate for great grand babies. These conversations were brought up frequently, sometimes with Tony in close hearing range.

Kevin thought Tony was awesome, and often asked him what he thought of the newest thing on the market, or asked him hundreds of thousands of questions of anything related to technology. These conversations were usually long and boring; I figured Tony just liked the sound of his own voice.

Steve was just as excited as any other teen to have Tony Stark in their house. I often caught Steve trying to drag Tony off to show him something cool. Tony was always more then happy to see what Steve had to show him. This surprised me because most of my ex-boyfriends didn't understand how to deal with Steve. He frustrated them because of how demanding he was.

I wasn't sure what Lucas and Jack actually thought of Tony, because when they both expressed their opinions on the matter it was only to bash me, and make me feel less of a person then they already thought I was. But they had no problem pretending to be nice to him, which pissed me off a little. They really did think they were better then everybody.

* * *

Tony had discovered he was quite fond of the Bethune family, and they had seemed to grow very fond of him. He liked spending time with them for a number of reasons. The first was to woo Heather Hart into liking him, and the second was because he had never been apart of a family like the Bethunes.

There was very few things about the family he didn't like, one of the being the relationships some of the Bethune family members had with Heather. He had noted that most of the family members seemed annoyed by her presence and often lashed out at her in a various of different ways. Her brothers Jack and Lucas being the worst. He couldn't count the number of times he had been walking past a room and heard the way they talked to her or about her.

Every time he had seen Heather and her older brothers conversing he had attempted to jump in and rescue her, but she usually quickly removed her self from the situation often brushing past him. She would then disappear for what seemed hours, always returning in a form of deep thought.

On his fourth Sunday in a row since meeting the Bethunes, Tony had stood in the living room scanning a large wall covered with pictures, each of them neatly placed and straight. His mother had never hung pictures on the wall, and it was strange to him that Miss. Bethune had some kind of obsession with it.

"I didn't know you were a cheerleader!" Tony said sightly surprised when he had discovered a very young Heather with long hair loosely hanging around her waste and a thin line of braces on her teeth. Heather stirred on the couch peeking her eyes over the top of her magazine to see the picture Tony was talking about. She scowled remembering high school, she hated high school.

"Its not something that should come up in normal conversation." Heather snapped, turning her attention back to her magazine. Tony scrunched his face up confused, why wouldn't high school come up in normal conversation?

"I'm guessing these two girls are your friends?" He asked studying the picture again. Heather was sitting beside an blonde and red head their pompoms on ether side of them.

"Not anymore." She sighed annoyed, flipping the page of her magazine harshly. Heather had begged her mother to take that photo down so many times she couldn't remember. She had stopped when her mother had told her the picture wouldn't have been that big of a deal if she grew up and told her friends she was sorry. Which would never happen, so the picture would forever hang on the wall. Heather had learned to ignore it.

"Oh... well, I'm sorry to hear that." Tony said watching Heather's turmoil, it wasn't uncommon for her to squirm when someone brought up her past, in some rare occurrences she would become angry and storm out of the house disappearing for hours.

One weekend she had attacked Lucas when he had brought up her father, it had taken Tony, Kevin and Mark to pull her off of Lucas who nursed a bloody nose. Soon after she had stormed out of the house and didn't reappear for 48 hours.

It was Grandmother Bethune who had to explain that Heather was really touchy about the subject of her father. She said she had figured it was because her father had simply got up and left one day, and that Heather seemed to think that having a different father didn't make her apart of the family.

Tony could see where she got that idea, she was after all the only child in the family with a different father and her older brothers had brought up her absent father often when they were teasing her. It didn't help that Heather looked nothing like any of the members of her family. He figured she had to have looked like her father. Her hair was black when everyone in the family had blonde or dirty blonde hair, she had dark green eyes when her family had blue. Everything about Heather screamed different.

"I'm not." She said simply crossing her legs at her ankles on the couch she was stretched out on. The statement had confused Tony because he simply did not understand why. Why weren't they friends anymore and why she didn't care they weren't?

"Look the only thing you needed to know is cheerleaders are one of the worst people to be friends with, they like backstabbing any chance they can get." Heather said annoyed, folding her magazine and slipping off the couch. He could only watch Heather quickly make her way out of the living room and into the kitchen. He had attempted to follow her when he was stopped by Jack who like always was lurking around the house.

"You know, you should just give up on this whole Heather thing." he advised looking at his nails as he leaned against the wall. Tony could feel his stomach twist in annoyance, who did this guy think he was?

"And why is that?" Tony snapped watching Jack pull his hand away from his face and shove it into the pocket of his pants. Slowly Jack walked around the room, Tony's eyes following him with great distaste. The look on Jack's face showed he was less than impressed with Tony.

"She didn't tell you _why_ she doesn't have friends did she?" Jack asked suddenly changing the conversation over to what he and Heather had been talking about only moments before. It pissed Tony off that Jack had just been creeping around listening to their conversations, but it didn't surprise him.

"No and I don't think that really matters why she doesn't have friends!"Tony snapped watching a smile spread across Jack's face. Tony after all didn't have a lot of friends, he was positive that if he didn't own a large business he wouldn't have any friends at all.

"I think it does, because Heather was sleeping around with their boyfriends." Jack stated simply waiting for some kind of reaction from Tony. Tony felt like he could almost laugh, why would something like that matter to him? He had after all slept with all kinds of women, including a few friend's girlfriends. That was probably one of the many reasons why he no longer had a large number of friends. If he were to hold something like that against Heather he wouldn't be a better person but a far worse.

"And like I haven't slept around?" Tony asked watching Jack's face twist into disgust. Jack was silent for a moment before he spoke again this time his words low and spite full.

"Look Tony, I know Heather well enough to know she likes to fuck and chuck, which is exactly what she'll do to you so I suge-"

Tony cut Jack off, he could feel the anger rising in his veins. "What's going on between Heather and I isn't any of your business, and even if it were, you have no right to talk about her like that. She's your _sister, _and even if she wasn't it still makes you an ass hole for treating her like you do!`` When the words had left his mouth Tony could feel the pride bubbling in his chest. Jack was stunned, he stood in the middle of the living room with his mouth slightly ajar.

``Fine!" Jack snapped before turn on his heel and slamming the screen door shut loudly. Tony had felt very proud of himself and did some strange jig, turning around to see Heather watching at him with a look of confusion etched into her face.

``Oh, Heather I was just...um`` Tony said rubbing the back of his head embarrassed he had been caught acting like an idiot.

``I know what you were doing!` she said softly, she crossed arms and uncomfortably looked at the ground her mind spinning with the events prior to seeing Tony dance around the room.

Tony still stood a small distance away from her watching her uncomfortably shuffle around, he was about to ask her what was wrong before she spoke up her fingers digging into her upper arms nervously.

``Look I heard what you said to Jack." Heather said, her chest rising and falling softly as she took in a deep breath of air. Tony suddenly rubbed the back of his head nervously as he tired to think of something to say to Heather.

"Thank you." she said softly. Shocked that Heather had said even something remotely nice to him he looked at her. She had her head tilted to the side and a few strands of hair were falling out of her usually neat up do. Tony was at a loss for words and he stood with his jaw slightly ajar trying to figure out what was wrong with her. He suddenly could feel lips tighten into a crooked smile, maybe she was finally warming up to him.

"Any time." Tony replied feeling an over whelming sense of pride in his chest. Suddenly Heather let out a sigh and uncrossed her arms, wiping her hands on her pants. Something Tony had noticed she did when she was nervous. Any normal person would rub their face or the back of their heads, but because of the type of make-up and hair supplies Heather used in her hair, Heather couldn't. Why she wore so much make-up was a mystery to Tony, because as far as he was concerned she didn't need any.

But he had to give her credit, she had managed to find a perfect balance of make up. But there was still enough on her face that she worried she could smudge anything. Heather gave him a small smile before passing him her arm almost brushing his. He couldn't help but hope this was new stepping stone for him and Heather, even if it didn't seem like much.

* * *

"So Tony what are you doing on Thursday?" Miss. Bethune asked, spooning a large sum of potatoes onto his plate. He had already been chewing a small portion of broccoli, so he quickly swallowed the piece with difficulty, before he answered.

"Uh I think I have a few meetings at work, why do you ask?" he asked, his eyes following Miss. Bethune and watched her spoon potatoes on Heather's plate who was looking at her plate in boredom. Heather hadn't said anything since she had heard his confrontation with Jack, but she had sat beside him at the table which was a new. Normally Heather would avoid all contact with Tony, and if she couldn't get away from him she would stand as far away from him as physically possible.

"Well, its Steve's birthday and if you can make it we would love you to come!" She said reaching from behind him and gently placing the clear glass bowl of potatoes in the middle of the table. She then gently placed her hand on Tony's and Heather's shoulder before scurrying her way to her seat near the head of the table.

"I'll see what I can do!" Tony said shooting Heather a cheesy smile. She rolled her eyes and ignored him before she started to poke at her mashed potatoes, the excited chatter of Steve could be heard. Tony already knew what he would get Steve for his birthday, he had only talked about the game "DDR" like their was nothing else on the planet.

He had played it at one of his friends house a week ago and had since fallen in love with the game. Miss. Bethune had explain to him they couldn't afford such a game for him since they would need more then one mat so other members in the family could play, and that maybe for Christmas he might get the game.

He decided he would buy him the game and a couple mats so he could have his friends over to play, or any family member who wished to joined. The expense would be far from a dent in his wallet, and the joy it would bring Steve would be well worth it.

"So what did Tony get you?" Miss. Bethune had asked, watching Tony set up the system to Steve's game. Steve's smile spread wider across his face as he bounced slightly on the couch before answering.

"A game!" Steve shouted loudly before waving a box around in the air that she was incapable of focusing on. She smiled awkwardly before looking over to Tony who only shrugged at the situation. Inside he was beaming with pride, Steve was more excited about his gift then any others he had received.

"Well then, you two have fun playing it. I have to go to work! Heather's in the kitchen if you need her!" She said simply, pulling her purse over her shoulder, which looked odd since she was a short chubby woman. She nodded at Tony before she left out the front door slamming it behind her like many family members in the house did.

"So are you ready?" Tony asked Steve ignoring the soft sound of clattering dishes in the kitchen. Steve nodded his head excitedly skipping over the the new neatly placed mat.

Actually playing Dance Dance Revoulation with Steve was as fun as it was boring. Tony understood that Steve could never play to the extent of a normal child, but when Steve would get excited about beating Tony, it was more then enough reason to play a game with him for a few hours.

Tony and Steve were on their fifth game when Heather had called out from the kitchen asking them if they wanted something to eat. Steve had responded that he wanted a sandwich, and Tony had simply told her no. He wasn't a fan of lunch foods, and even if he was he wasn't hungry. His appetite could never even compare to the men in the Bethune house hold. He had noted that they could eat just about anything and everything, while Heather was a picky eater.

"Heather isn't allowed to play this game." Steve said simply when he had pressed up on his mat completely missing anything that had passed on the screen. Tony was confused by his sudden outburst, and had missed hitting a few arrows on his screen.

"Why would you say that?" Tony asked slightly concerned by the words coming out of his mouth. Steven was never usually the type of child that would say anything like that to any one, especially Heather. Steve looked up to Heather, it seemed that he never stopped talking about her. The only reason he knew as much about Heather as he did was because Steve would tell him things. Things like Heather's favourite colour was red, and that her favourite movie was the Colour Purple. He hated that movie, but he would watch it with her if it made her happy.

"Because I don't want her to!" Steve said ignoring the strange look Tony was giving him. Steve hit a button on his mat, sending bright flashing lights across the screen.

"Hey Steve here is yo-" Heather's voice was suddenly cut of when she had fallen to the floor. The plate shattering on contact with the hardwood floor. For a moment Tony had thought she had tripped until he realized that Heather's body was violently thrashing around on the floor.

"Heather!" Tony found him self on auto pilot as he tossed himself across the room, in attempt to help Heather. Who continued to violently seize on the floor, Tony could feel the sharp pain in his keens as he knelled into the sharp glass beside Heather his fingers shaking as he dialled for an ambulance on the phone.

* * *

"Is she okay!" a breathless Miss. Bethune had yelled running down the hallway with her husband at her side, her cheeks were stained with tears as she embraced Tony who was beyond upset. He didn't understand what had happened, and because he wasn't family no one would tell him what had happened.

"She's fine, but they wont let me in to see her!" Tony said running his hand through his messy locks of hair. A sigh of relief had passed through her lips as her husband made her way past her and to talk to one of the nurses at the front desk. Miss. Bethune sat down beside Tony, grabbing his hand and squeezing it gently. The gesture was comforting, but didn't help him feel any better.

"Tony what happened?" She whispered her hand still clutched around his much larger callused hand. Tony gently squeezed her hand gently before he told the story of how Heather had walked out into the living room and suddenly seizured. He remembered the gut wrenching fear for Heather's safety, and the confusion of the sudden situation he was thrown into.

"What game were you playing?" Mr. Bethune's ruff voice spat when Tony had finished spilling the story. He jumped a little not knowing that the large man was standing in font of him with a busty nurse who was holding a chain of silver keys.

The question had confused Tony, he had scrunched up his eye-brows before calmly answering "Dance Dance Revolution" and watching the man's reactions to the new found information. Heather's step-father grunted angrily before spitting out his response.

"That stupid dance game?"

"I thought Tony said it was called DDR?" Miss. Bethune responded confused her hands by her thin lips. Tony had realized that Miss. Bethune was far from a highly intelligent woman she often said stupid things, or failed to make connections with any information she was given.

"DDR is the acronym of Dance Dance Revolution." Tony said simply watching shock spread across her face. Her face was almost as white as a sheet of paper when she started to sputter out incoherent words.

"Wait, what does a video game have anything to do with Heather's situation?" Tony asked feeling quite stupid that he wasn't able to make the connection. He was too upset, very little information was making sense in his head. Miss. Bethune gripped his hand a little tighter before turning her full attention to him.

"Tony, Heather is a photosensitive epileptic, cretin speeds of flashing lights makes her seize. That's why we didn't buy Steve that game!" She said calmly her eyelids fluttering rapidly. It looked like she was trying to blink away tears, but Tony ignored her. The guilt was making his stomach churn. It was his fault, he had never even asked if it was okay to buy such an expensive gift for Steve. He was only thinking about how he could impress Heather. He would have never even thought that the thing he was buying to impress her would hurt her.

"Tony, sweetheart, its not your fault! You didn't know!" Miss. Bethune said leaning in closer to Tony and rubbing his back in a loving manner. Something he hadn't experienced since his mother died. Her words were hardly comforting, he still felt guilty.

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Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

I changed the name of the story, in case you didn't notice. I will also post pictures of 'Heather' in my profile; she was after all the inspiration of Heather even before I started writing her.

Thank you for the reviews. I love them.

**Needs to be betaed. **

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I was use to pain; pain came very close in hand with photo epileptic seizures. My whole body ached from the attack as well as the dull sharp sting and stiffness of the cuts on my arms wrapped in gauze.

I use to think that nothing could be worse than the time I had seizured in the middle of my grade six class. One of the boys had brought in some ridiculous toy that flashed a large amount of white light. I had immediately seizured when he had shoved it in my face, hitting my head off the side of a desk and pissing my pants.

I still have the small indented scar near the hair line on the right side of my head. The scar was something I had desperately tried to hide all through public school, not that I was ever teased, but because I was ashamed I wasn't normal.

And if my family couldn't make it any worse they started to call them 'Heather's little accidents' as if I had urinated in my pants every single time.

But the seizure that had occurred this weekend had to have been the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me. Not only did I piss my pants in front of Tony, but while I was pumped up on drugs I kissed him. The shock on his face when I pulled away was enough to make anyone forget that I had urinated my pants only hours before.

I don't know why I did it, but now I knew that from now on our 'friendship' was destined to be awkward.

* * *

Heather spent most of her time the following week after her 'accident' moping around the house, attempting to avoid any prolonged conversation with Tony, even if she curled up on the couch with Tony sitting on one end. She would ignore him only using him to tuck her cold feet under.

Tony desperately wanted to talk to her about the kiss because he was frustrated. He wanted to know what the kiss meant, if it meant anything, He figured it was one of those things that Heather did to confuse him. Like the time she had randomly blurted out that she liked narcissistic men.

It seemed that every time that Tony wanted to talk to her, about anything there was an interruption the biggest of interruptions being Anna. Anna was Heather's best friend as well as the only person who liked Anna in the Bethune house hold. Anna was a short thin blonde with a high pitched voice and the hyperactivity of a chipmunk, as we as the mentality of a small child. When Anna appeared the rest of the family disappeared.

Anna had showed up early one day after Heather's seizure and announced to the house hold that not only was she getting married but she was moving back to their small town. She then proceeded to swoon over Tony while telling Heather how lucky she was to find a nice caring man like she had. She had even announced to Tony that in her high school years she use to have a crush on him and had her wall littered with pictures.

"Did Heather ever tell you she is a make-up artist?" Anna laughed nudging Tony's arm as he watched Heather dig through a massive amount of makeup on the kitchen table. He had never in his life seen the amount of make-up sitting on the table from even a normal make-up artist.

"No." Tony responded flatly because he did not know that about Heather, and it explained why she always had such an amazing application of makeup on her face. He watched Heather's face scrunch up as she sorted through her make-up and placed her unwanted make-up in a small plastic container to give to Anna.

"Heather's song is totally Beauty School Drop Out from Grease." Anna smiled snapping the gum in her mouth almost cow like.

"No, it's not because I graduated from beauty school." Heather shook the container she was holding studying the contents intently before snapping the lid on top and slowly making her way over to Anna who gladly accepted the gift of expensive makeup products.

"Oh Heather, learn to take a joke!" Anna said excitedly opening the container to sift through her new gifts. Tony watched Heather roll her eyes, as she slowly started to place all her makeup back in its original containers. An awkward silence suddenly hung over the room. Tony hated these moments because he found them to be the perfect opportunity to talk with Heather about the kiss, but Anna made it impossible.

"Hey Heather, do you have any more of that eye-cream you game me last time?" Anna asked breaking the silence, Heather's face scrunched up as her eyes browsed her collection on the table to find the cream Anna was talking about.

"Yeah, hold on. I keep that upstairs!" Heather mumbled as quickly walked past the two of them, her perfume lingered behind for a moment, and then disappeared along with her presence.

"So what is going on between you two?" Anna asked suddenly turning her body to face Tony who was a little confused by Anna`s outburst. Anna had her face scrunched up in thought as she waited for an answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tony lied hoping not to have this conversation with Heather's best friend. Best friends usually told each other everything, and he didn't want Anna to say anything to Heather about him, she might ruin his chances.

"Yes you do! You're both acting like confused high school students!" Anna's eyes were carefully studying Tony who was uncomfortable with Anna's prying. It was unsettling to him that she had easily picked up on the awkwardness between him and Heather, and made him wonder if the rest of the family had picked up on anything yet. The possibility was quite high if someone as simple as Anna could.

"Is the sex bad?" Anna asked a look of deep concern on her face. The question had shocked Tony and he stood starting at the girl with disbelief, he did not understand how someone could jump to such a conclusion that he and Heather were having sex. Even if he wanted to.

"Heather and I aren't having sex. In fact were not dating at all!" Tony said plainly. Anna's face had turned into shock, as she raised a hand up to her lips.

"Has she at least kissed you?" Anna asked shifted to her body to see if Heather was coming. Heather walking in on their conversation would not go over well. If anything she would tell Tony to leave because she never wanted to talk about any type of relationship with Tony.

"Yeah, but…" Tony was suddenly interrupted when Anna let out a loud exhale. "Phew, you had me worried there for a second T. For a second I thought you were completely hopeless when it came to wooing Heather!" She let out squeaking laughing as she slowly came to realize Tony was not sharing the same humor, because Tony was having troubles wooing Heather.

"Oh T, I am sorry!" Anna said a look of true sincerity across her childish features. He was embarrassed, embarrassed because he had spent months pursuing Heather and he didn't even have any kind of relationship with Heather.

"Don't worry about it T, I'll help you out. Heather's not really that hard to woo once you have gotten a date with her, it's getting a date with her that's impossible!" Tony was sure her words were meant to be comforting, but they didn't help at all, if getting a date with Heather was impossible, the wooing here would be even more impossible, and he was in a sense wasting Heather's time.

Tony was unsure of how Anna was going to help him win a date with Heather and a few days after Anna had left he assumed that Anna was just trying to make him feel better, and that she had lied to him. He had figured that Anna was one of those girls who were easily distracted, and it was highly possible she intended to help him but simply forgot being excited about her wedding that she had planned two months after she told Heather the news.

Tony was unaware when one night after he had left Anna had started to put her plan in action. Anna's brown eyes studied Heather as she gently wiped the makeup off her face, smudging the black liner under her eyes giving her a tired appearance.

Anna was laying stomach down on Heather's bed, her feet crossed at her ankles as she gently swayed her feet, and flipped the magazines she was pretending to read. "So you and Tony Stark, I would have never imagined!" Anna muttered loud enough for Heather to hear. Anna studied Heather wrinkle her face in annoyance. Anna was more than well aware that Heather hated it when people talked about her relationships with men for a number of reasons.

"Anna we're n…" Heather stated when Anna interrupted her. Anna knew Heather well enough that she would start to make excuses in a proper conversation, so she would just cut off everything Heather had to say. That way Heather would be confused with the new information she was giving, and like always she would spend days thinking about what Anna had said to realize that Anna was indeed right.

"He treats you really well, I don't think I've seen a guy look at you the way he does!" Anna chimed as she flickered her white smile at Heather. Heather stirred at her vanity as she gently rubbed the wet cloth under her eyes completely removing her black eye liner.

"And how does he look at me?" Heather asked seriously, Anna could tell the wheels were turning in her head just the way Anna wanted them too.

"Just that lost puppy dog kind of look! He looks totally love stricken when he looks at you! It's sooo romantic!" Anna let out a sharp giggle as she sat up quickly on the bed, a few of Heather pillows fell to the floor.

"The other day I caught him starting at you. You were doing something, I don't remember now, but he was so infatuated with watching you that he didn't hear me talking to him!" Anna's had grabbed a pillow in her passionate speech, and she hugged it as she sighed. Anna acted as if it were the most romantic thing she had ever heard.

"Anna, that's hardly romantic. If anything that's creepy, what kind of grown…"

"And you know what Heather?" Anna interrupted waiting for Heather to guess what she was going to say. Heather glared at her waiting for her to continue what she saw as a pointless conversation.

"I think he might be the one for you!" Anna giggled as Heather's face change into a blank stare. Heather really had no idea how to react to Anna's current exchange of words.

"And how did you come up with that one!" Heather spat, slamming something down on her vanity, Anna flinched. She already expected anger from Heather but not to the extreme of throwing things. Suddenly Heather ran her hand over her clean face and Anna watched as Heather struggled with her thoughts.

"Heather, you're a pretty girl. You deserve someone to care for you, even if he is a jerk like Tony Stark besides, do you think if he only wanted to sleep with you that he would go to this extreme of getting it. It's not like he can't find anyone else."

"Well that's reassuring!" Heather snapped swerving off the bench of her vanity, and sharply pulling open a white drawer to pull out her night clothing.

"I didn't mean it like that…Heather, what I mean is, give him a chance. Tony doesn't seem like the type of person to go out of his way to swoon a girl unless he was truly interested in her. Heather I think he really likes you." Anna watched Heather silently studied the massive amounts of clothing in her drawer and smiled softly, because she had known her little pep talk had worked.

* * *

"Friday." Heather had said simply pulling her blanket closer to her chin, her feet like usual were tucked under Tony, and like always her toes were chilly at first, but soon adjusted to his body temperature. Secretly Tony liked it when Heather tucked her cold feet under him.

"What about it?" Tony asked confused, Heather continued to watch TV acting as if she hadn't heard him. Heather's eyes gently flickered to where Tony was sitting and they lingered for a second before she turned back to the screen, a deep sigh of what Tony preceded to be annoyance to slip out of her lips.

"You and me, on a date." She answered her voice flat and almost inhuman. Tony had felt a knot in his stomach starting to form. He had no idea if Heather was just messing with him, or if she was serious. Heather started to shift on the couch pulling her feet from under Tony and lying on her back her hand gently pushing a small thread of hair off her forehead. When she was finished her hand remained by her face. The room was almost completely silent except for the television playing their program softly.

"I'm serious," Heather assured him, watching his reaction of shock turn into a wide smile on his face. The look had reminded her off the boys in her brother's high school who would often stop to talk to her. The smile would have been almost innocent if she trusted Tony.

"Seriously? You're not pulling my leg?" Tony asked, his smile getting wider when he realized that Heather squirmed a little on the couch, a small faint pink blush spreading across her cheeks. Tony could feel the over whelming excitement settle in his chest as his mind rumbled with the thoughts that Heather was finally giving him a chance. After so many months of chasing her, he finally got her to say yes to a date.

"Yes but if you keep it up, I'll date ditch you again!" She joked, turning away from him in a heated huff to watch the T.V screen. A soft chuckle spilled from Tony's lips as he watched her pretend to ignore him.

"Okay, I'll stop talking if you promise not to date ditch me again! That was really embarrassing!" Tony had laughed, running his arm along the back of the chesterfield. Heather continued to ignore him, trying to pretend to be engrossed into her show, which really held no interest to anyone in the room at all.

"Tony?" Heather had softly asked, shifting on the couch and pulling her blanket closer to her chin. The sight had made the butterflies in his chest flutter, and he had almost forgotten to respond. His response was muffled and incoherent, but it seemed to be enough for Heather because she looked at him, a soft smile on her red lips.

Tony didn't quite understand what was going on until he felt Heather's ice cold feet creep up the small of his back. Heather had found it humors when Tony had jumped up off the couch to avoid her prank. After pulling the back of his shirt back down he gave Heather a disbelieving look. Heather being playful was definitely a new to Tony.

"That isn't very nice !" Tony laughed when she had curled her toes back into her blanket. "To bad you didn't know I can play unfair too!" Tony chucked reaching for Heather covered sides. Heather didn't even have a chance to tell him no, before he had her pinned on the couch tickling her sides, her cries of laughter echoing through the house.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the wonderful reviews.**

**Needs to be betaed.**

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Tony had been nervous when he had showed up to the restaurant, so nervous that he had stripped his tie from around his neck and stuffed it in his pant pocket as he waited for Heather. Time ticked on very slowly as he fidgeted around in the small booth millions of thoughts running through his head. She was a little late; she had after all promised she would come. But ten minutes had turned into an half an hour, then before he knew it an hour and then it was time for the restaurant to close.

The heart break in his chest felt unreal to him, and he figured that he should have seen this coming. Heather had taken no interest in him at all. It had hurt less when Pepper had left him for Happy, because at least Pepper was kind about it.

Tossing a couple of bills down on the table he finished his drink and slammed the glass on the table, a small visible crack ran up the side rendering the glass useless.

As he walked out of the restaurant a waitress bid him goodnight, and he mumbled back a heart broken response. He had decided at that moment that he was possibly one of those people who were destined to be alone. It was his punishment for all the bad things he had done in the past and he had done a lot of bad things.

"Sir?" Happy had asked interrupting Tony as he stood on the cold side walk. Happy had been talking to him and he hadn't heard a word. Happy held the back door of the limousine open as he waited for Tony to climb in. Running a hand though his hair Tony sighed, rolling his head back to look at the sky. There wasn't much to see, it was dark and cold, much like he felt about his future. Tony didn't want to be alone, and the more time past the more he realized he wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

"I saw a Burger King six blocks north from here; I'll call a cab home." Tony had said, he waved Happy off ignoring any protest the man had to offer. Tony didn't want to hear it, and he defiantly didn't want Happy to see him mope in the back of the car. The last thing he wanted was Happy to tell him something along the lines of what Pepper had told after she had dumped him. _"Tony one day you will find someone, and you'll be happy." _

Pepper's words were unbelievable, and he never wanted to hear them again because at that moment he felt like he would never be happy again.

Stopping at a cross walk Tony hit the button to cross and waited while the orange hand flashed. There were no cars in sight seeing as how late it was but he didn't care enough to just cross anyway. Knowing his luck somebody would run him over with an invisible car. He had noticed that there wasn't much of anyone around the city streets, except for a few lovers to the right of him, and a drunken blurb of a human walking towards him.

The crossing light flashed to a little white man and Tony had ventured out into the street, his continued to study the unknown drunk human walking towards him. Every so often the person would stop leaning against a store wall before continuing on again. This went on for a couple more seconds before they had completely stopped, and sat down against a brick wall. Seeing someone possibly have a worse night then him made him feel a lot better, even if he still felt like shit.

Upon closer inspection Tony had noticed the figure was in fact female, and the closer he walked towards her the quicker he had came the realization that she was in fact Heather.

* * *

"Shit!" Heather yelled kicking the front of her car as a mass amount of smoke poured from the engine. She was already late for her date with Tony because Steve had demanded a ride to his friend's house, and her mother had forced her to comply with his request. Heather had found herself lucky enough to have her car beak down a couple miles outside of the city, on a dark road that looked as if it led to nowhere. She hoped that something would eat her and save her the embarrassment of explaining to Tony that she was late because she had a shitty car.

Frustrated with her current situation, Heather slammed the lid of the engine shut, and walked back to the front seat of the car the sound of her heels crunching in the gravel. Life she figured would have been easier if she had asked Tony to pick her up at home, then she wouldn't have had to drive Steve anywhere, and her shitty car wouldn't have broken down on the way to the restaurant.

Heather swung the door open, and the hinges creaked under the weight of the door. Grabbing her purse she snapped it open and dug through what little contents inside she had, one of which were not her cell phone. Heather let out a frustrated groan snapping the purse shut once again and swinging it over her shoulder.

"Fine!" she muttered to herself, "I'll just walk!"

Twenty minutes later when Heather had walked off the gravel road and onto a paved one that she had decided that maybe walking to the city was a bad idea. She could barely see, and what she could see was barely enough to let her know she was walking in the right direction; she stopped at a large sign. Squinting her eyes she tried to read what it said.

"Good job Heather! You went the wrong way!" She muttered to herself as she stood reading the large sign in front of her. She angrily kicked a rock at her feet; the rock skidded across the road and disappeared into the darkness. Turning around her eyes picked up a small soft light at a distance rapidly coming closer to her, and in a desperate attempted to be free of her current situation, she waved her hands wildly above her head.

At first she was unsure if the transport truck was going to stop, but when it's slowed to a stop and hissed beside her she, excitedly jumped into the passenger seat, straining her arms as she pulled herself up the side of the large vehicle.

"Hey there, where you headed?" The man driving was quite large, dirty, tattooed and smelled of piss. The smell was nauseating, Heather had figured he was one of the many drivers who pissed in empty pop bottles and tossed them out on the side of the road when they were full.

"You know that high class restaurant a few blocks away from Main Street?" Heather's mind reeled with all the possible names, and couldn't come up with one, personally she would rather go to Burger King then wine and dine like Tony had planned.

"Yeah, I know the one." He mumbled, looking in his side mirror and pulling away from the side of the road. Heather nodded her head in agreement as if he could see her. She fidgeted around in her seat the smell of the cab tickling her nose. She tried to distract herself by fiddling with red tube dress that stopped at her knees. The truck driver had seemed to notice her discomfort and began to talk.

"He must be a mighty good man if he can afford to dine at a place like that!" The man spoke loudly, snorting and swallowing what was in his mouth. Heather's cringed at the sound feeling her stomach churn.

"Yeah, he's okay." Heather spoke softly looking out the window to see the dark shadows of tress pass by. The man continued to talk and Heather slowly started to become annoyed with him.

"Thought the only people who ate there were jerks like that Tony Stark fella'. What a screw up that kid turned out to be, don't even know how he manages to run a company when he's too busy sleeping around, and drinking like a fish out of water." Heather could feel her chest tighten as the man continued to ramble on about Tony, telling her tails that he had read out of a magazine.

Heather clenched her fists as the man continued to babble on about all the things he had heard about Tony before Heather had finally lost it, she wasn't quite sure what she had said but she was positive it had made the truck driver angry because he had assaulted her before throwing her out of the passenger side of the cab.

Clutching mouth in pain she flipped the driver off, and sat down on the curb. With careful hands she slipped off one of her heels, moaning in pain. The heel of the shoe had snapped in two when she was tossed from the tuck.

"Well I better start walking!" She said to herself as she pulled her other heel off, her toes curled when they touched the cold cement.

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Happy had watched Tony slowly make his way down the street. When he had first seen Tony walk out of the restaurant he had known something was wrong. Tony had a similar look on his face when he and Pepper had announced their wedding plans. Sometimes the look had haunted Happy, because Tony had never before expressed such an emotion as heart break. Sighing Happy pulled out his cell phone and dialled his wife's number. As he waited for her to pick up he shut the back door of the limousine closed then leaned on it.

"Hello, Pepper Pots speaking!" Her voice rang over the phone, she was distracted. Happy could tell because she didn't look to see who was calling and her voice sounded distant, like she was on another planet.

"Hey it's me." He had said simply waiting for her to clue into who she was talking to, suddenly her voice picked up.

"Oh hey! Is everything all right? How did Tony's date go?" Pepper asked, by the tone of her voice Happy could tell she was excited to hear news about Tony's date, he had after all spent months going to her house for dinner. It had excited everyone that Tony had finally stopped moping around the house, they all figured that finding a nice girl would be good for him.

"She stood him up." Happy said softly, he himself could not believe that any girl would stand Tony up, let alone one he had spent so much time with. Pepper was silent on the other end of the phone as she tried to adjust to the new information she was given.

"Are you serious?" Pepper asked loudly on the other end of the phone, Happy had opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by her angry rant, "She stood him up again? What kind of woman is this Heather? Who plays with some ones heart for months and date ditches them! Does she think this is funny? Well I don't think it's funny! I'm going to give this woman a piece of my mind!"

"Pepper, Honey I don't think that's going to change anything." Happy said softly, Pepper snorted on the other end of the line. Happy could understand Pepper's frustration; Tony had never taken rejection lightly. When Pepper had ended their strange relationship he moped around for weeks, but still attempted to romance her. That all stopped when the news of her engagement reached Tony's ears. Tony had simply congratulated her, and then fell into a depression that no one quite understood how to deal with.

"Is he okay?" Pepper asked softly, she could feel a small cluster of tears coming on, and rubbed her eyes in attempt to stop them. Happy sighed, looking down the dark street to see if he could see Tony. He only saw darkness.

"I don't know." Happy said simply, silence hung over the couple's conversation before he spoke again. "We will have to keep an eye on him."

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Tony had gently sat Heather down in a booth at the late night Burger King, and she softly thanked him leaning her head on the back of the bench, and closing her tired eyes. For a moment Tony stood unable to move, his eyes felt like they were permanently glued to her face, her left foot was slightly swollen, and she had a large burse around her jaw. Her clothing was disheaved, and with her she carried a pair of shoes, one of which had a broken heel.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked gently running a hand along her jaw so he could turn her bruised jaw into the light. Heather's green eyes had looked at him tiredly, and she thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, just a little hungry." She softly said, as she tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach, and the warm touch of his strong hands. Tony looked tired, and his shirt was slightly rumpled (from tugging at it so much). Like always he was wearing finer clothing then anyone she had ever known, but unlike every other time she had seen him he was not wearing sunglasses. She had figured he left them at home so they wouldn't clash with his suit.

Tony didn't say a word when he left the small table they claimed, Heather watched as he quietly made his way to the counter and ordered from two very excited picture snapping teen girls. Heather ignored them, leaning her head on the back of her chair as she waited for Tony to bring her, her surprise order.

When Tony returned, he didn't say anything as he slid the tray on the table, sitting down opposite of her and started to eat his half of the order.

"How did you know?" Heather broke the silence; she was sitting with her hand resting against her neck. Tony looked at her confused, and swallowed what was in his mouth but Heather continued before he could ask her what she was talking about.

"How did you know the chicken sandwich was my favorite?" she clarified nodding her head towards the direction of the neatly wrapped burger. Tony shrugged his shoulders, shoving another fry in his mouth.

"Lucky guess?" He said, after swallowing his fry. Heather gave him a look of disbelief.

"Okay, okay! Steve told me!" He said, with his hands in the air. Heather rolled her eyes and grabbed one of his fries. Steve never really stopped talking, so there were a lot of things he knew about Heather.

"What else has he told you?" Heather questioned seriously, she leaned forward a little bit in her seat allowing her arms to rest on the table as she chewed the fry in her mouth. Tony laughed, shaking his finger at her innocently.

"If I told you, I would be snitching on my partner in crime." Tony's smile grew winder as he heard Heather's soft laugh echo in the empty restaurant. When she was finished she gently tilted her head and her eyes fluttered down to their meals.

"Thank you." She said softly, fluttering her eyes back on him. He could feel his breath catch in his throat; he loved how she could do that to him, and still completely remain innocent.

"For what?" He stuttered, fiddling around with his drink on the table. He was sure he looked stupid, and attempting to get his heart to settle down was difficult because his heart was always pumping at massive speeds when he was around Heather.

"For being so nice to my brother, he really likes you." She said softly, Tony tried to remain cool with the situation and muttered out something along the lines of 'na its cool' before he realized he sounded stupid. Heather didn't seem to notice because she continued on with what she was saying.

"No really, I've had a lot of shit boyfriends, and they never would put any effort into hanging out with my family, you're the first to really care. Especially with Steve, he can be really frustrating sometimes, and I understand that. But you're so patient with him, and after you leave he never stops talking about how awesome you are." Heather started to play with her straw wrapper; she wasn't looking at Tony so she didn't see the large Cheshire Cat smile plastered across his face.

"If I didn't know any better I could have swore you said I was your boyfriend." He joked; Heather was silent for a few seconds before she spoke. He half expected her to get flustered like she normally did but was surprised when she had looked at him seriously, her perfect eyebrows were arched and she tilted her head flirtatiously.

"Well, I'm not going to marry you we're not even finished our first date; I figured boyfriend would be more appropriate!" Heather had continued on like she had said nothing, and started to look around the room for something. He guessed she had found what she was looking for because in his shocked disarray she slid out of the booth and hopped over to a table containing newspapers. She grabbed one before sliding back in the booth and propping her injured foot into Tony's lap gently. The whole time Tony remained flabbergasted.

"Are you serious?" He asked not believing the words that had came from her mouth, he half expected her to laugh at him and tell him she was only kidding. Heather's eyes appeared over the edge of the paper, her green eyes would have stunned Tony if his brain wasn't already reeling with information.

"Well, you treat my brother really well, you have watched the Color Purple with me more times than anyone, you know my favorite burger at Burger King and you haven't tried to grab my lady bits." She paused for a second, "Yes, yes I'm serious." She said plainly, turning back to her paper.

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**Please review! I love reviews! Also please feel free to point out any errors!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you Amy for editing. **

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"So," My grandmother said as she gently sat down beside me. She had a serious look on her face and I curiously looked over the magazine I was reading to see what she was up to. Gently she reached over and grabbed my foot squeezing it in a comforting manner. A soft smile was suddenly plastered on her face as she continued, "When are you and Tony giving me great grand babies?"

I suddenly choked on air and grabbed at my throat trying to calm myself down. My grandmother didn't seem to take notice of my reaction because she kept on smiling at me waiting for a response.

"What the hell is wrong with you? We haven't even been a couple for a day yet!" I yelled pulling my feet away from her. I was no longer in the mood to read, and my grandmother just let out a soft laugh. She reached out to pat my hand gently as if she was reassuring me.

"You're funny dear," she said pausing for a second. "But you didn't answer my question, when am I going to see those babies?"

The porch door opened and Tony stepped out running a hand through his freshly washed hair. I took this opportunity to escape passing him and very seriously telling him "Tell her we're not pregnant, and while you're at it, you're infertile."

An extreme look of confusion crossed Tony's face and I left before he could say anything. I could only imagine the look on his face as my grandmother waited patiently for Tony to tell her when we were having children. Or even the things she would say to him.

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'What the hell was that?' Tony asked Heather as she leaned over the hood of the family truck. She was tinkering away and he couldn't help but notice that her black lacy underwear peeking out over the rim of her jeans. Suddenly he had all sorts of visions of Heather in expensive laungurey of different shades and colors.

"What was what?" Heather asked pushing her hands against the truck to push herself away and reach up to grab the hood of the car slamming it shut. Tony ran his hands over his face frustrated. Heather had no idea what she did to him, and it frustrated him.

"Why I had to explain to your grandmother why we don't have children." Tony didn't quite understand what happened, one minute he was walking out side, the next he was explaining why he hadn't managed to impregnate Heather yet. He could have sworn he heard Heather chuckle before she walked into the old wooden red barn. He followed after her.

"How did that work out for you?" Heather asked disappearing into a small room where her tools were held. Tony never spent much time out in the barn with Heather because it was as her family put it, her 'heaven'. The barn not only held some of their animals, but Heathers' tools, bikes, and whatever else she was working on. He couldn't help but study her bikes, each of them neatly covered with a canvas blanket to keep them safe.

"I had to explain to her why we haven't had sex." He said in distaste, Heather let out a laugh dropping whatever she was holding. Tony frowned as he carefully leaned up against the doorway.

"It's not funny, she was actually upset! You think she would be happy we were abstinent." Tony frowned as he watched Heather bend over to pick up her tool. From the door way he could see the faint red blush across her face from laughing. She had covered her bruise well with make-up and he could barely tell it was there at all.

"I think it's hilarious." Heather said softly brushing the dirt off her wrench. The barn was silent for a second before she spoke again. "It's funny, because not too many guys stick around after the sex talk with my grandmother."

Tony choked when the words left Heather mouth, he wasn't the first? How many guys had the sex talk with her grandmother?

"You're the third by the way." Heather smiled, pointing the wrench at him, before slightly limping and disappearing behind another wall to the room where she worked on her bike engines. Tony followed after her, silently sitting down on an old chair she had sitting in the corner of the room.

It was an odd feeling to him; sitting and watching Heather work on her project, because she normally became agitated when someone came into her crappy little work shop. She was oddly calm with him sitting silently in the corner of the room, and he wasn't going to talk any more then what was needed.

He didn't dare ask about Heathers' previous boyfriends; he could only see it ending up badly. He could feel a smile spread across his face as he watched Heather work, ever so often she would say something to him.

"Shit." Heather muttered pulling her wrench away from the engine she was working on. Tony watched her as she pulled the broken tool away from a bolt she was working on. The wrench had oddly broken in two pieces, and Heather started to search the ground annoyed, he watched her in interest as she picked up a small screw on the ground and held it up into the light.

"It's okay, I can fix it." She muttered to herself, placing the screw in the hole that it had fallen out of. She searched around for a screwdriver as she chewed on the corner of her lip, when she found it she grabbed it and swiftly started to screw the screw back into place.

"Why don't you just buy a new one?" Tony asked, watching her tighten the screw back into place as tightly as possible. Heather ignored him for a second studying her work before she replied.

"Money," She said softly, Tony didn't take any notice of the sudden annoyance Heather held. She didn't want to talk about the tools, and she had quickly used an excuse so he would drop the subject.

"Heather, if you need new tools I'll buy them for you." Tony watched as Heather suddenly became flustered, her hand ran across her forehead as she looked around the room. Almost as if she we're trying to escape.

"No." Heather said, shapely pulling at her jeans and grabbing a tool he couldn't see. She began to angrily work away on her machine. Tony completely ignored Heather's furious reaction.

"Heather, the money really is no trouble. I mean, I have lots of it." Tony laughed at his own joke; he realized that Heather had not found it funny when she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I said no." Heather slammed her tools down on the bench and quickly walked out of the room. Tony found himself running after her calling her name, when he reached her he grabbed her arm and gently turned her around so he could see her face.

"Why are you so upset? They're just a bunch of old tools!" Tony said, suddenly Heather jerked away from him, and he knew at that moment that he had said the wrong thing.

"They are not a bunch of _old _tools Tony!" Heather snapped as she attempted to walk around him. Tony blocked her, moving around her to stop her from walking out of the barn on him.

"Heather wait, let's talk about this!" He said moving in front of every direction she attempted to take to walk away from him. She was slowly become more and more annoyed with him, and he could tell by how quickly her chest was becoming red.

"There is nothing to talk about!" Heather snapped trying to push Tony out of the way. She had figured if he wouldn't move she would just push him out of the way. Tony was much larger and stronger than her so when she had used her hands to push him out of the way he wouldn't budge.

"Apparently there is if you are getting this upset," Tony could slowly feel his frustration building as Heather continued to push on him; trying everything within her power to move him.

Tony gently grabbed her wrists drawing her attention to him. For a second Heather stopped struggling, and Tony thought she was going to talk to him.

"Mr. Stark if you don't move, I'll scream." Heathers' voice was cold; it was the same way she talked to her older brothers when they harassed her. It was a tone he had never heard her use with him. Not even when she was annoyed, or frustrated with him. She sounded like she was talking to an infectious disease, not a human. He could feel his chest tighten in pain, as he let go of her wrists. Heather quickly walked away from him without so much as even a second glance.

Dinner that night had been awkward, because Heather had gone missing. Heather disappearing was normal for their family, so when they had asked Tony why she had run off he had to awkwardly explain that he and Heather had a fight.

Like most families they were curious about what they had fought about, but he wasn't sure, this upset a few family members, and didn't surprise others.

"Well it's just like that girl to run away from her problems." Jack snapped, fussing over one of his children who sat beside him. Everyone's eyes were on Jack as Lucas and their father nodded their heads in agreement. Tony could feel the frown appear on his face. He couldn't help but wonder why they were still at their parents' house. It wasn't Sunday.

"Heather does not!" Her Mother snapped gently slapping one of her son-in-laws on the arm. He glared at her, turning back to their dinner and mumbling under their breath.

"Yes she does! If she didn't then maybe she would have married that last boy that came along, what was his name, Frank?" Mark Bethune said loudly pointing his fork at his wife. She nodded her head in agreement, silently picking at her plate.

"There was nothing wrong with that boy, and at the first sight of problems with him, she hightailed it out of there!" He continued nearly shouting across the table, everyone listened intently when Mark talked. He was a large blond man, and not listening to him was impossible, since his presence took up a large majority of the room.

Mark continued to rant on about Heather and her ex-boyfriend when Heather's Grandmother suddenly interrupted him. "Mark, I don't think Heather's relationships are any of your business. Besides, I think it's making Tony incredibly uncomfortable, and I like him a lot better than any of the other ones."

The room was silent as Tony gave her a soft smile of thanks and continued to pick at his dinner. The hope that Heather would return to eat with them dissipated about an hour later when he was helping Heather's mother do dishes.

He was pulled out of a trance when Grandmother gently grabbed his arm. She was holding in her one arm a deep blue knitted blanket, and she held a large smile on her face.

"Here take this, and go sit on the porch swing." She said softly attempting to hand Tony the blanket. Tony confused, set the dish on the counter, gently grabbing the blanket from Grandma who continued to smile at him.

"That's my boy." She said softly patting his arm, and grabbing the dish he was drying previously.

When he stepped out onto the porch his eyes studied the dark yard. Heather's two older brothers had since gone home, taking their children and wives with them. He was grateful they were gone, because it would be just like them to corner him outside.

There were no words for how much he hated Heather's brothers, because they seemed to be the cause for many problems. Tony closed his eyes in frustration, slowly making his way over to the porch swing were Heather was sitting absorbed into her own world.

She hadn't noticed Tony walk out of the house, because when he approached her and handed her the blanked she looked at him surprised, and mumbled out a soft thank you before pulling the blanket into her lap.

There were a hundred things Tony wanted to talk about, but he chose to sit down beside her instead. The silence was one of the most awkward silences he'd ever had to sit through.

"Are we going to talk about what happened?" Tony asked, watching Heather and waiting for a response. Heather continued to play with the blanket in her lap as she stared off into the distance. Tony understood this to be a no, and he angrily frowned.

"Heather, please!" He pleaded, watching her once again ignore him, this time instead of angrily frowning at her he stood up and searched his pockets for his car keys.

"Fine, if we can't talk about this then I'll just go home, and come back when you're finished jerking me around." He had never talked to Heather that way before, and for a moment he felt a little dirty, like he was playing the same games her brothers would play. But at the same time he felt as if Heather didn't care enough, or care at all about him.

He couldn't understand why she would ask him to be her boyfriend, if she wasn't going to make an effort to have any kind of positive relationship. Heather's eyes flickered over to Tony, and when she didn't respond, he pressed his lips together tightly. With a nod of his head, he turned on his heel and started to walk towards his car.

"They were my dad's." Heather's voice had stopped Tony when he was about to walk off the porch. Tony turned to look at her and for a moment their eyes met. Heather looked away from him almost ashamed.

"They were one of the things he left behind." Heather's hands played with the blanket she was holding. Heather half expected Tony to leave, but when he sat down beside her and gently grabbed one of her hands she could fell the brim of tears in her eyes.

"I should fix this swing, the chains are rusting. One of these days it going to snap and someone one is going to get hurt." Heather quickly changed the conversation and attempted to walk past Tony.

He quickly caught on to what she was doing and gently grabbed her hips, stopping her from walking away from what he thought they needed to talk about.

"Then why keep them?" he softly questioned, Tony didn't know a lot about Heather's dad. He knew that he had gotten up and left one day for some unknown reason, he also knew Heather was deeply affected by it, and that her father was also the reason why she was seen as a social outcast in her family.

Suddenly something clicked in Tony's mind, and he could feel this overwhelming sense of sadness.

"Heather, are you keeping them because you think he might come back?" Heather let out a soft sob, and Tony could feel his heart breaking for her.

"Is that stupid?" She asked shielding her face with her hands. Tony pulled her into his lap; Heather tucked her head into his neck and silently sobbed. The position was uncomfortable to Tony but this moment wasn't about him. It was about Heather.

"No. No that's not stupid..." He said pulling her closer, "That's not stupid at all."

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	7. Chapter 7

**Needs to be betaed.**

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Tony and Heather were completely unaware of Kevin's actions earlier that morning. Armed with a camera, he took a few pictures as well as a video of Heather and Tony on the swing. He hadn't been the only person that morning to see Heather and Tony curled up on the swing together fast asleep.

Grandmother was the first, noticing that they had fallen asleep earlier the night before, she had gone outside and made sure Heather and Tony had a thick blanket over top of them. When she was asked about her actions she very simply said that grand-babies couldn't be made if their mommies and daddies were sick.

Her answer had caused Mother Bethune to choke on her breakfast and an uproar at the breakfast table. A small fight about Heather's and Tony's sexuality quickly erupted from the table. If Heather's mother had anything to do about it, Heather would still be proudly carrying her 'v-card' as she called it.

The fight was quickly brought to an end when Grandmother pointed out it was really none of their business what Heather and Tony did in their spare time, and hushed anyone who thought to challenge it otherwise.

Heather and Tony were completely unaware of the conversation that took place in the kitchen that morning and were a little disorientated when then entered the kitchen to join the rest of the family. They didn't notice the awkward glances the family was giving them or the thick uncomfortable air that surrounded them. They were both completely absorbed in their own world.

"I got to go home and get some clean clothes." Tony whispered to Heather as he piled scrambled eggs onto his plate. Heather only nodded her head as she ran her fingers under her eyes trying to get the makeup off that had caked there. She had yet to put anything on her plate so Tony after taking his fill of eggs, spooned some onto her plate. He half expected her to give him an annoyed glance but she nodded her head in thanks still not totally awake.

"Tony honey, you don't have to go home, I bought you some extra clothes the other day!" Grandma said waving a hand at him, a large smile plastered on her face. She received curious glances from Tony and Heather who were both wondering why she would do such a thing, until Heathers Step-Father blurted out a controversial statement that had confused Heather and Tony more.

"As long as she is living here, those two are NOT sleeping in the same room together!" His face became red in anger as he slammed a first down on the table. The contents on the table shook, and one of the many jars of jam toppled over. Kevin quickly grabbed for it tilting the jar back up before it had a chance to spill its messy matter onto the table.

"That's not up to you!" Grandmother said softly pealing open an orange. Her eye-brows were knitted together in anger, which was rare, Tony watched in awe as a fight quickly unfolded at the table and Heather covered her face in embarrassment as the family fought about _their (non-existent) _sex life.

Tony had never been put in a situation before where his sex life was talked about in front of his girlfriend's parents. He had never really met any of his past partner's parents, and he still didn't want to because he was sure there was lots of Dads who wanted to kick his teeth in.

"The hell it's not! This is my house and I say what goes!" Heather Step-Father slammed his hand down on the table, the sound echoed through the room, ending the quick argument. Tony kept silent terrified about what was going to happen next. Everyone seemed to be in a trance as Heather's Step-Father's face slowly faded into its normal pink self.

"If I want to have sex with Tony, there is nothing you can say or do that will stop me." Heather's voice interrupted the silence, Tony choked on air, and everyone at the table seemed to be in shock that Heather had challenged him. His face quickly started to flare red.

"Excuse you!" He yelled, standing up from his chair, the legs scraping on the floor. His hands were pressed against the edge of the table, and Heather's mother quickly grabbed his arm whispering to him as she attempted to calm him down.

"No." Heather said simply running her hand along her jaw. The look on her face was completely serious, Tony clenched his jaw waiting for the burst of anger that was about to pour from his mouth.

"And you know what, when we do have sex, I'll enjoy every minute of it." Heather leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. She was challenging her Step-father, and if Tony wasn't in danger of dying, he would have found the things Heather was saying quite thrilling.

The crack of Heather's Step-Father's jaw could be heard over the silent room as he prepared to give Heather a lashing for what she said.

"Heather, you and Tony need to leave." Miss. Bethune softly demanded over the silent table, Tony stood up quickly taking this chance to escape. He had a feeling that if he stayed longer he might be castrated.

Heather frowned, placing her hands on the table and using them to push herself off. "Fine!" She said, with a crooked smile on her face, "There is this new place Tony and I wanted try having _sex _any way."

* * *

Pepper would like to agree that it was natural for Tony to not come home some nights, but she knew she would be a liar if she did. Since Tony's kidnapping he didn't spend many nights way from home, at least not without telling her where he was going.

Happy had tried to assure her that Tony was fine, and that they should wait for him to come home. Happy wouldn't say anything but he was also worried about Tony. He was positive that Tony was physically okay, but he wasn't sure about Tony's mental state.

Happy watched helplessly as Pepper called Rhoedy, and after hanging up called Tony's cell phone again. A sigh of frustration left her lips as she flipped the lid of her phone shut, only to reopen it and dial Tony's number again.

"He's not picking up his phone, something is wrong. I know it!" She muttered to herself, a look of frustration crossed her face as she listened to the obnoxious ringing on the other end of the phone and Happy tried to help her clam down once again.

"Pep, I think you might be making a big deal out of nothing." Happy tried to assure her calmly. He held his hands up defensively as Pepper shot him a look of disbelieve. Like most married couples they did fight once in a while, usually over really stupid things. Later the two would laugh about it and say they were sorry, but this time Happy had a feeling it wasn't going to be one of those fights.

"Happy, Tony had his heart broken two nights ago and he hasn't come home. I think that's more than just cause to be worried! You should have never had let him go off by himself!" Pepper's cheeks were flushed red as she slammed her phone shut and opened it to redial it again.

"Tony is a grown man, he doesn't need me to babysit him!" Happy interjected, Pepper seemed to ignore what he had said. He knew Pepper held him responsible for Tony's safe return; he was after all paid to protect him, as well as drive him around. But even if it was his job, Tony was still a grown man, if Tony didn't want to come home he didn't have to. Happy figured like most men that maybe he wanted some time alone.

"This never would have happened if that Heather wasn't involved. " Pepper said sharply, but Happy knew some of the blame of Tony's disappearance rested on him. Happy opened his mouth to say something to Pepper but she angrily threw her phone on the counter in front of her.

"I'm going to give that woman a piece of my mind!" Pepper said quickly making her way across the kitchen picking up her purse and disappearing before Happy had a chance to say anything to her. Even if he could have stopped her he figured it wouldn't have made a difference.

Pepper's heals clicked on the floors, as she made her way fiercely down the large stair case, punching her code into the wall of Tony's garage. The door beeped when the correct code was typed in and she swung the door open ignoring the shape pain that ruptured through her muscle form the stress of pulling open the heavy door.

She stormed over to the keys for the enormous amounts of cars Tony had, because Pepper was the one who organized these types of things it was like second nature for her to swiftly pull a set of keys off the wall and march over to the car it belonged to.

Her ears picked up the sound of an engine, her heart fluttered and she quickly turned her gaze to the opening of the garage where she watched Tony pull into a parking space at a speed that would have killed any other driver. She was so relived of Tony's appearance that she ran over to the car, and before he could fully open the door and pull himself she started rambling!

"Tony! Oh my god! Are you okay? We were so worried about you! We didn't know where you were! I thought you were dead! Happy thought you were dead! You don't need her Tony! Heather was a floozie! She couldn't do anyone any good! One day you will find a girl, not all of them are like Heather, I promise you!" the words were blurted out in a great cluster, they poured out of her mouth so fast that she didn't see the awkward look on Tony's face and Heather step out of the car.

Tony ran his hand along the back of his neck, and waited for Pepper to notice Heather who was standing on the opposite side of the car, a look of irritation on her face. Heather had heard everything, and when Pepper took notice of her the embarrassment twisted in her stomach.

"Pepper Pots, this is Heather Hart, Vice versa!" Tony said with a laugh, trying to fill the awkward silence that hung between the three. They of course did not see the humor in the situation, so he continued to smile awkwardly as the two girls had a death starring match.

"Pleasure," Heather snapped, to which Tony drew a sigh of relief. He thought about cracking a joke, but tightly clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth to stop himself from spilling the ensemble of stupid.

"Well ah, Heather come on, I'll show you the house!" He said reaching into the back seat and pulling out a plastic bag, that contained Heather's newly bought items, which were an array of makeups and a few article of clothing. Heather had made him pull over so she could buy a couple of things so she had something to wear after she had a shower at Tony's place. He quickly passed Pepper after shutting the car door, giving her his famous 'I'm sorry smile' then disappeared up the stairs.

It took Pepper a few moments but when she got her mind back together she ran out of the garage and back up the stairs to the living room where she found her Husband awkwardly looking up the stairs to which she assumed he was looking up after Heather and Tony.

There was a mixture of emotions' running through her system as she thought about Heather and Tony showing up at the house. Relief, embarrassment, and most of all anger.

Heather Hart had date ditched Tony hours ago, and now she appeared once again. What for she had no idea, but she did think Heather was a leach, and she was using Tony. She was unsure of what it was for yet, but she believed that Heather was out for her own gain. She took three long strides around Happy to peer up the stairs. She couldn't see anyone.

"Who was that?" Happy asked, looking keenly at Pepper who's frown turned into a twisted snarl.

"That was Heather!" Pepper growled, Happy was taken aback by this new information. Happy would have hated to admit it, but he was surprised by Tony's choice, not because he thought poorly of Heather, but because typically Tony went for thin blonde women, that usually lacked intelligence, they also had a interest in modern fashion.

Heather was none of these, Heather wore mostly jeans, white wife beaters, a pair of scruffy high tops, and a red scarf she always had done up pin-up style around her head. She also kept her makeup very pin-up style, but it oddly suited her, and it was hard to see her in anything else. It also wasn't uncommon to see her covered in engine fluids, which was one of the many things Tony had found very appealing. Most women he had met were horrified by anything that could taint their skin.

"Really?" Happy asked, a little baffled by how different Heather was. Pepper mumbled something he didn't catch, but he was sure it was something that conformed his question.

"Well I can see why he likes her!" Happy said, apparently it was the wrong thing to say because there was a loud snapping sound that came from Pepper when she snapped her phone shut. She had just finished sending a text message to Rhodey to tell him, they had found Tony.

"She won't last long." She said venomously, Happy turned to Pepper a shocked look on his face. He had never seen his wife been nasty with anyone, who it wasn't called for. Heather had done nothing to Pepper so he was surprised she was acting this way.

* * *

Tony took pride in what people thought of his house, so when Heather was flabbergasted he could feel the over whelming sense of pride build in his chest. It was as if he were going to burst, this was exactly the reaction he hoped from her.

Heather tried to contain her shock over how large Tony's house was, she had expected it was quite large, having a lot of money and all. But actually being inside his house was a whole other story, all of his bathrooms where bigger than the master bedroom at her house. It made her feel very, very small.

After a half an hour tour, Tony showed her to a bathroom where she could change and shower. Tony quickly changed and showered in his room, before running down the stairs to find Happy and Pepper. They were both sitting in the living room with a large gap between them.

Tony didn't notice the tension in the air, and instead stood in the entrance of the living room with a large childish smile on his face. "So what do you think?" He asked loudly, Happy and Pepper stirred looking towards Tony. Happy opened his mouth to say something, but clenched it tightly when he decided that maybe he shouldn't say anything. Pepper was extremely unhappy about the situation, and he didn't want to be in the middle of it.

"About what?" Pepper asked with a raised eye-brow, she turned back to the laptop on her lap. Everyone in the room knew she wasn't actually doing anything on it, her fingers weren't typing, and her eyes weren't even focused on the screen.

"What do you think about Heather?" Tony asked again, the smile was slowly fading from his face when he realized that Pepper was not showing the same excitement he was. Blood rushed to Pepper's cheeks, and she continued to pretend she was doing something on her laptop.

"I don't think anything about Heather!" She lied, Happy knew all too well what she thought of Heather, they had only been talking about it when Tony had dragged her upstairs. Happy had tried to convince her to give Heather a chance, but she ignored him. She was positive that Heather was no good trailer trash.

"You don't seem to happy Pep, what's wrong?" Tony asked, Happy had tried to warn him, but Tony didn't seem to pick up that Pepper was fuming. Pepper slammed the lid of her laptop, and without a word, she started to pack up her things.

"Pep?" Tony asked, stepping forward a few paces. He wanted to know what was wrong, he after all still considered Pepper as his family.

"Honestly Tony, I think you and I both know very well what I think about Heather!" Tony stood back shocked holding his hands up in defense. He didn't know what to say about Pepper's outburst and when she continued he didn't stop her.

"Just because it didn't work out between us Tony doesn't mean you snatch up the first woman you find interesting. Heather is nothing but a piss poor excuse for a human being. She just like every other woman you have taken interest in, selfish, and only after one thing, and what do you think that is?" Pepper took in a deep breath of air her face was now deep red, Tony had opened his mouth to say something when he heard a noise behind him.

He almost didn't register that Heather was quickly moving past him, her fist clenched. He jumped forward pulling her back from Pepper who was Heather's target. He would like to say that Heather wasn't a person to beat the living day lights out of someone, but Heather grew up with brothers, and violence seemed to be the most logical way for them to get their messages across.

Tony was much stronger then Heather so it was easy to hold her back, a look of pure anger was etched across her face. He had seen it a few times before in the past months, and she was usually only this angry if her entire day was sour.

"Heather please don't!" He rambled holding her shoulders firmly. Heather huffed before looking at Tony, she relaxed a little thinking about what he was asking her. She nodded her head, still annoyed. A soft smile spread across Tony's face as he gently guided her away from Pepper.

"Bitch." Pepper muttered under her breath, she turned to continue packing up when Heather swung around. The anger that was on her face only moments ago returned, Tony threw his arm out to stop Heather from beating the day lights out of Pepper. Heather oddly didn't even attempt to attack Pepper, instead she spoke.

"You know what kind of women I really hate Ms. Potts?" Heather hissed, "The kind that date a guy, than marry one of his best friends, to which they later rub it in his face, parading their new husband his house."

"Excuse me?" Pepper asked.

"At least I didn't marry one of Tony's best friends, and rub it in. If I'm trash then what the fuck are you?" With that Heather turned and walked out of the room. Tony was at a complete loss at what to do, so he chose the most likely situation that would get him killed, which was following Heather.

Pepper stood flabbergasted at the woman who marched at the woman, know she was right.

* * *

_I have had too many issues with this chapter, and I can seriously say I was unhappy writing this, that is probably why I had like, 300 million different versions._

**PLEASE REVIEW.**


	8. Chapter 8

Thank you ShellyStark for editing.

* * *

Pepper felt terrible. Even if Tony wouldn't say it, she knew he was hurt by the way she treated Heather, because Tony wanted them to get along. Heather didn't have many friends, and he hoped that Pepper could possibly be one of them.

He did, after all, think of Pepper as family; and if they all couldn't get along his relationship with Heather would be complicated. He wanted Heather to spend time at his place, maybe even spend the night a few times a week. He hoped that they could start a project together and from there he could easily convince her to let him buy her new tools. The new tools she desperately needed, but refused to replace.

Pepper had spent a few days twisting in her own misery. She was often reminded by her actions by her husband, who wanted to know why she had acted so out of character. She had an answer but it wasn't one that she wasn't ready to tell her husband.

It was early in the afternoon when Pepper had decided that she would make things right. She quickly thought of what she was going to say before she scrolled through her contact list and dialed Tony's cell phone. She then waited for Tony to pick up, the whole time her heart beating like crazy. She could only pray that Heather would accept her invitation, and that she could fix the mess she made.

* * *

Tony was trying to sneak a feel of Heather's bottom when she pinched him. He gasped in pain, and then laughed, rubbing the sore spot on his leg. Heather had spent the past couple of hours reading a book. Which coincidentally was also her favorite movie, 'The Colour Purple'.

He didn't understand her fascination with the movie, and he didn't even know it was based on a book. He often zoned out when she put the movie on, and sometimes when he could no longer handle it, he would bother her by running his hand down the curves of her body, getting a smack when he got to brave. This only made him laugh, and usually he just continued where he left off. It would take a while, but Heather always got to a point where she couldn't take it anymore, and he would get his way and they would get to do something he would like to do.

Tony smiled again, taking his arm and wraping it back around Heather's shoulders. She was curled up against him with a blanket on her feet, because Heather's feet were always cold. Once again Tony ran his hand lower down Heather's body slowly trying to make his way to her bottom, with a large smirk on his face.

"Don't even think about it." Heather warned, turning the page of her book, which she was already about half way through, amazing Tony because she had only started reading it an hour ago.

He wouldn't have made it past the first page.

"Thinking about it!" He laughed, sliding his hand down to her hip, where he waited for her to respond. When she didn't he moved his hand down to her back pocket and slid his hand in. Heather sighed frustrated grabbing his hand and pulling it away from her bottom. She placed his hand somewhere she deemed it more appropriate. Her waist.

Heather slammed her book shut when he started his game all over again. "What do you want?" She demanded.

"I can request something?" He asked playfully. Heather rolled her eyes, turning her body so her head was resting in his lap, and her back firmly pressed against the porch swing. He pouted when he was no longer able to play his game.

"We you obviously want something." She said as she shielded her eyes from the bright sun. She couldn't see how wide the smile was on Tony's face, but she knew he was scheming something in his head.

"How about a kiss?" he asked boldly. Heather was almost a little shocked that he had asked, but at the same time she told herself she shouldn't be. He had after all been chasing after her for months; it wasn't really at all surprising that he wanted to kiss her.

"Tony Stark, you are a dirty old man." Heather yelped trying to cover the heat that was going to rush to her face. Her blushing cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Tony.

"I'm not that old!" He chuckled, grabbing her hands so he could see her face.

"Well, I still don't want to kiss you!" Heather snapped, folding her arms under her breast.

"Well I want to kiss you!" He laughed, Heather rolled her eyes as she tried to contain the smile on her face. She always pretend like he was a chore and it was one of the things he loved about her.

"And what happens if I kiss you?" she asked, refusing to give in to his ministrations.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it will be addicting, and we will want to do it again!" He said, trying to contain the laugh that was building in his chest as he tried to be as serious as possible.

Heather laughed, "Is that so?" she asked with a flirtatious grin on her face. She sat up turning her body so she could support herself with her arms. She leaned in a little closer to Tony, her eyes fluttering between his lips and eyes.

"QUICKLY GET THE CAMERA IT'S TONY'S AND HEATHER'S FIRST KISS!" Grandmother yelled running into the house and knocking an assortment of things over. Heather and Tony quickly pulled apart. Frustrated, Tony ran a hand over his forehead. He was so close; he could almost feel Heather's warm breath on his face.

Tony looked over at Heather who was nervously fixing the scarf around her head as she pretended that nothing had happened. Grandmother came out seconds later holding the camera above her head like it was some prize she had won.

Grandmother seemed a little more than upset that she had missed the kiss. She hovered over them for a few minutes asking them to restate it for her. Heather refused and embarrassingly played with the back of her scarf as Tony and her grandmother teased her.

Grandmother eventually pouted telling Heather she was no fun before stalking off back into the house. From there she would then proceed to stalk them, attempting to snap a picture of the couple.

"Never a dull moment." Heather sighed just as Tony's phone rang; he fished it out of his pocket lazily, looking at the screen for a split second to see who was calling.

Heather leaned back resting her back against Tony's side; he didn't hesitate to wrap his arm around her waist.

"Hey Pep." Tony hummed, ignoring the dirty look Heather gave him. Heather's mood suddenly turned sour knowing who he was talking to on the other end. He could feel how her body tensed against him; it was one of the reasons why he never mentioned Pepper around Heather.

Tony moved the hand around her waist to grab Heathers nose, knowing perfectly well that it would annoy her. She tried to sharply pull her head away from his fingers, but was to slow, because he gently grabbed her nose with his thumb and index.

She swatted his hand away from her face as he continued to listen to Pepper on the phone, only half registering what she was saying, for he was too occupied teasing Heather.

"I just want to say I'm sorry. Can I talk to her?" Pepper asked desperately from the other side of the line, he could hear the desperation in Pepper's voice and as he grabbed for Heather's nose again he agreed with a soft grunt.

He pulled the phone away from his ear and attempted to pass it to Heather who responded by pushing his hand away from her face. She jumped when she realized that the phone was only inches away, and gave Tony a curious look.

"No!" She whispered harshly looking at the phone in his hands fully understanding what he wanted her to do. He stuck his out his bottom lip, attempting to guilt her into taking the phone.

Heather shook her head in a harsh no, as Tony tried to press the phone to her ear. She almost knocked it out of his hand when he whispered a very serious please.

Heather sighed, grabbed the phone from Tony and placed it to her ear as Tony thanked her silently. She ignored his stupidity, and brooded.

"Hello?" Heather answered, attempting to sound nice. Her grandmother was around somewhere, and she didn't want a smack for being rude. Pepper immediately went into a large fluster of apologies, telling Heather that she would like to be friends and asked if they could start over.

Pepper wanted to go out for dinner with Heather, (that night of all nights) and if all worked out fine she wanted to invite Heather to a spa trip she had planned with her other friends. Heather almost told her to die in a ditch, but failed when she saw Tony's pleading face. He was silently bagging her to say yes; acting as a moron as he did it. Heather tried to ignore what he was doing, but because it was so obnoxious and annoying she couldn't.

A plan suddenly formulated in Heather's mind and she looked at Tony who continued to plead her to take Pepper up on her offer. If she had to spend a night suffering so would he, and she knew he would do it, just for her.

"Yeah sure, what time?" Heather asked. Pepper blurted out a time and place, then thanked her about a million times before she hung up. Heather fumbled with the phone for a few seconds before she figured how it turned off. Tony was ecstatic and smiled at her, waiting for her to say something.

"What?" She asked, annoyed that she had given Pepper a second chance, she seemed to be giving a lot of people second chances these days and she was beginning not to like it. She didn't understand why people suddenly really wanted to be in her company.

"Thank you!" He said as he leaned in to kiss her and she was quick to pull back. Unlike Tony she knew grandmother was floating around with a camera, and she was more than ready to take pictures that would be sure to serve as wallpaper.

"I wouldn't thank me yet." Heather frowned, causing Tony to furrow his brow in confusion.

"Friday," she said poking him in the chest. "You are taking me to the theater down town, and you are going to buy me chocolate, roses and dinner."

Tony nodded his head completely happy with this idea. He and Heather hadn't gone on a date since burger king.

Heather gave Tony a wicked smile before standing up

"Their playing The Color Purple." Heather said happily almost skipping away, knowing Tony would instantly regret agreeing with her.

Tony ran his hand over his face, "I should have known."

He was now not really looking forward to this date, just like Heather wasn't looking forward to spending time with Pepper.

* * *

Heather had showed up to dinner late. Tony had explained to Pepper that it would be something she would do just to spite Pepper because Heather knew Pepper was a very punctual person. (Maybe something like…Heather showed up to dinner late, despite the fact she knew the very punctual Pepper Potts would not be happy….Something to make it flow a little better.)

At first their dinner had started off in awkward silence, Heather every so often sending text messages to Tony about how much she hated him, to which he responded with smiley faces or quick witted comments. Comments that were more often than not full of sexual innuendo.

It was moments like these where Tony was truly annoying to Heather; he was the kind of person who would carry on a joke until you nearly punched him in the face. He liked to see people get riled up, and sometimes teasing Heather was one of his highlights of the day because Heather tended to get flustered when he teased her and she would bicker with him. Something which most people wouldn't do, most people would just agree with Tony. But he liked hearing the cleaver things that came from her mouth.

"Look, I wanted to apologize about my behavior the other night." Pepper said suddenly interrupting the furry of typing that Heather was in the middle of. Tony had sent her a winky face after she told him that there was no way in her entire life that she would ever let him see her naked. He then added she didn't have to that he would just dream about it.

"Is that right?" Heather said, her mind on another planet as she and Tony feverishly texted messages back and forth. Pepper could feel her nerves turning into a slow bubbling anger. She coughed, and like she would have with Tony placed her hand over the screen of Heather's phone blocking Heather from the perverted incoming messages from Tony.

Heather's eyes snapped up to look at Pepper who was looking at her intently. Heather sighed and flipped her phone shut, trying to ignore the buzzing of Tony sending message after message. Pepper tried to ignore the phone dancing across the table as she continued on with what she was saying.

"I just want to be friends, can we please start over?" Pepper drummed her fingers on her knees as she waited for Heather to respond,

Heather's mind was whizzing with things to say to the woman. If this was the Heather Tony had met months ago she would have told Pepper to get bent. Which would in no doubt end up in a verbal fight.

Heather flicked her eyes to the side-walk, studying the people who walked past them; giving Pepper and Heather awkward looks at they walked by. Celebrities often ate on the deck of restaurants. Most of the people who walked by were doing double takes, trying to make sure that they had in fact seen Pepper Pots talking to another woman. Pepper, being behind the scenes and not nearly as famous as Tony, didn't get as much as attention as he did.

"It's very strange to me that days later you suddenly want to be friends with me, when you were so angry by my very existence. If I do recall correctly you called me a 'piss poor excuse for a human being." Heather said as she lazily looked from the side walk to Pepper.

Pepper started chewing on her lip fighting the thousands of thoughts that told her that this was a lost cause. That if Heather didn't want to be friends, then she couldn't force her.

"Look, Tony really likes you, which is huge considering that he spent the longest time thinking that he would never find someone. As much as I didn't want to hurt him I did, and it hurt even more knowing that I was the cause of his pain." Pepper stopped holding back tears as she tried to keep her emotions in check. She tried to think of something to say, but couldn't. Watching Tony suffer was a horrible experience for her. It wasn't like she had meant to fall in love with Happy.

"With all due respect Miss. Pots, that doesn't explain the hostility you held towards me. If you had a gun I'm sure you would have shot me." Heather didn't intended for Pepper to laugh, but when she did a look of confusion crossed her face. Pepper leaned her head back in the chair she was sitting in looking at the umbrella over their table.

"Tony doesn't know yet." Pepper said simply, confusing Heather. "Neither does Happy." She continued pulling her gaze away from the umbrella to look at Heather who was wildly looking at her like she had grown an extra head.

"I'm pregnant." Pepper said simply a wide smile on her face, "And it's been really hard for me to keep my emotions in check, so you caught me on a bad day." Pepper knew it hardly made up for an excuse, but Heather seemed to understand, or at least Pepper thought so. Heather opened her phone turning it off by holding her neatly polished nails over a red glowing button.

Pepper didn't know what this action meant, but she was glad that the annoying jumping around of the phone would be done for a long time. At least until Tony had figured out what Heather had done and started to text her.

"If I say yes to this friend thing, do I have to change diapers in a few months?"

Pepper laughed not expecting the words that had came from Heather's mouth. But the intent of Heather question was totally serious; Heather had more than her fair share of changing children's bottoms, and if she could avoid it, didn't want to do it again.

"No, you won't!" Pepper smiled looking at the woman across from her who appeared to be thinking.

"I want you to know Miss. Potts, before I give this a chance, that I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for Tony." Heather, tilted her head a little, her tone, like before, completely serious.

Pepper fought the small joy that spread through her chest; she had never heard such words come from a woman's mouth about Tony. Even if Heather was completely unaware of what she had said. No other woman ever wanted to do something for Tony, most women wanted him to do something for them. Pepper wouldn't have it any other way.

"I understand Miss Hart." Pepper said holding back the large smile on her face.

* * *

Pepper had found, that deep down she rather liked Heather, and she could clearly see why Tony had developed feelings for her. Heather's personality was similar to his in the sense that she was stubborn, loved building things (mainly her bikes) and she was an extremely caring person with a select very lucky and small number of people (even if Heather tried not to show it).

Heather was in the middle of explaining a story of how she and her friends in High School got together and picked up one of their teacher's car. They then parked it into one of the hallways of the school so that it would have been impossible for the teacher to drive it out.

Pepper had been baffled that Heather and a couple of friends could pick up a car and carry it into the school until Heather explained it had been a Suzuki Sleeper, and that they were much smaller and lighter than a normal car.

Pepper had covered her mouth as she tried to stop the water she was drinking from spewing out of her mouth as she laughed at Heather's story, when a small older woman approached them a magazine in hand. Pepper knew something like this would happen when they were out so she simply smiled and greeted the woman who shyly asked for Pepper's autograph.

Pepper quickly signed the cover of the woman's magazine and thanked her for being a fan or something along the lines of that, but when the woman turned to Heather and attempted to hand the magazine and pen to her they were both confused.

"Um, I'm not famous." Heather said simply holding her hands up defensively. Heather assumed that because she was sitting with Pepper that this person thought she was some high class person and simply wanted her autograph because of it.

This confused the woman, and she scrunched up her face.

"But your Heather Hart aren't you?" The woman asked, Heather and Pepper both suddenly choked on their drinks, Heather's brow crinkled up as she looked at the woman even more confused than she was.

"How do you know my name?" Heather asked her body becoming stiff; this woman was now making Heather uncomfortable. How did this strange woman know her name, was she listening into her conversation.

The woman gave her an odd look before she spoke to Heather like she was a child "I follow your Twitter, and Facebook fan page!"

"My what? I don't have a Twitter, what the hell is a Twitter?" Heather asked looking at Pepper who opened her mouth to explain what a Twitter was, but Heather cut her off "What do I talk about on them?" She asked the woman who was still giving Heather a look that spelled out that she thought Heather was stupid.

"You normally talk about your relationship with Tony, and what you're doing with him. Are you going to sign this or not?" The woman asked, clearly tired of Heather's tantrum. Heather snatched the magazine from the woman's hands, signing the cover with a very loopy cursive signature of her name. The woman thanked her then stalked off.

Pepper was about to ask Heather what that was all about when she started mumbling under her breath. Heather flipped open her phone and turned it on. Pepper could only watch as Heather pressed a few buttons flagged down their waiter and pressed the phone to her ear.

Someone on the other end of the phone picked up and Heather's clam exterior suddenly changed, "You little punk, you have about 30 minutes to run and hide before I come home, and beat the snot out of you. Then after that Tony is going to find out what you did, and I'm sure he's going to want a turn too. Thirty minutes Kevin!" She snarled slamming the phone shut; Pepper remained silent as Heather apologized for having to leave early, and then slipped away from the table.

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Please review...it's what a writer lives for.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you ShellyStark for editing. **

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Kevin at first thought Heather's anger over the facebook and twitter account very funny, but a few days later when Heather hacked into the accounts, and posted pictures of her 'adorable baby brother' in a dress, that he became very angry. Heather didn't tell her fans that it was a picture from Halloween the year before, and instead left a short message underneath it saying "I love my brother for who he is" with a small heart on the end.

The stunt had caused more than a couple of fights in the family, most of the family members were on Kevin's side and told Heather her actions were inappropriate, even if Kevin had made the accounts under her name.

Heather quickly became frustrated and before she had the chance to take off and disappear, Tony jumped in and invited her to spend a couple of days at his house. That way he wouldn't worry about her being hurt, and he would know she was always safe.

When Heather agreed Tony tried to contain his excitement. He would have Heather all to himself, this meant they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They wouldn't have to tell anyone where they were going, or even ask to make sure that Heather could leave the house.

What Tony didn't expect was for Heather to stay as long as she did at his house. After a week of her just being around he started to wish that she would never go back. That Heather would forever just stay at his home because Tony didn't know Heather could cook, and that Heather was good at it.

After he had made a cleaver comment that the only way her cooking could be better was if he could eat it all the time, she started to make for him massive amounts of food that she froze. So he would only have to heat them up whenever he wanted to eat.

Tony had never before had so much food in his house. He contemplated buying a walk in freezer just so he could continue to accumulate more and more of Heather's homemade frozen dinners, until he came to the realization that he loved watching Heather cook and he would do anything with in his power to see her cook at least once a week.

Tony had woken up late one morning and shuffled around his room before he and his nose had came to the realization that there was a wonderful smell drifting through his house. Half asleep, Tony stood in his room rubbing his eyes he tried to identify the smell.

Slowly his mind came conclusion that Heather was making stew. Suddenly Tony's body started moving on its own, because if he was in his right mind he would have stopped to at least put some pants on.

Heather was in the kitchen opening the spice drawer, unaware that Tony was standing behind her as she opened bottles of spice to smell them. When she was satisfied they were good enough to use she quickly dumped various spices into the large pot on the stove. The pot looked like she could easily stuff 2 or 3 chickens inside of it. He wasn't surprised at all that he owned it.

"What don't you make?" Tony asked laughing at Heather who was covered in what he could on assume was flour. She looked unimpressed as she wiped the offending matter on her pants.

"Sandwiches." Heather said simply digging through the colorful masses of spices. Tony laughed again leaning over island to study Heather as her fingers moved through the mass of small jars.

"Seriously, I suck at making sandwiches." She said pulling out what she wanted; she opened the jar smelling the contents inside before throwing some in the pot. Tony held back a small laugh as he watched her stir, she stood on the tips of her toes to peer into the pot checking to see everything was okay before she skillfully placed the matching lid on the pot.

She turned around dusting herself off before looking at Tony. A look of confusion crossed her features, and for a second Tony thought something was wrong.

"Are you naked?" She asked her right eye-brow slightly arched. Tony looked down to see he was in fact as naked as the day he was born. He ran a hand through his hair thinking of something cleaver to say.

"Well would you look at that? I am naked." He chucked looking at Heather who looking at Tony like he was crazy. A new idea suddenly formed in Tony's mind and he started to slowly walk towards the end of the counter that was covering himself from Heather.

"What's the matter Heather? Never seen a naked man before?" He asked watching as Heather slowly made walked the opposite way of him, trying to keep her eyes off of him. She knew she had to keep an eye on Tony, or he would outwit her, and she would see him naked.

"O-f course I've see-n a naked man before!" She stuttered as she slowly tried to make her way for the second entrance of the kitchen. A wicked smile spread across Tony's face.

"Are you sure? Do you want to peek just to make sure? I don't mind!" He sang as he changed his direction herding Heather toward the entrance on the opposite side of the room.

"Yeah I'm sure!" she cried suddenly changing her direction, which Tony quickly caught.

"Tony I'm serious! I do not want to see you stark naked!" She held up her finger as if she were warning him. Tony chucked as she got braver, she was getting closer and closer to the door, and Tony knew she was going to attempt to run.

"That's cute Heather, _stark _naked." He laughed, she didn't find amusement in the connection and her body stiffened as she got ready to run when Pepper walked into the kitchen behind Tony.

She screamed dropping her clipboard and phone looking at Tony wide eyed as he turned around a look of terror etched across his face. Tony muttered out a few curse words before covering himself. He didn't know why Pepper was surprised, she had after all seen him naked on more the one occasion.

"Oh hey Pep! I didn't know you were here!" Tony said nervously slowly inching his way out of the kitchen. Pepper quickly turned and ran out before he even had a chance to. It was only then Tony realized that Heather had also ran, and he was now standing by himself.

* * *

"Oh hey Pep! I didn't know you were here!" Heather teased as she flicked on the car's turn signal. Tony rolled his eyes he didn't find it funny at all and Heather had teased him about it the entire day, she seemed to find it very funny that Pepper had seen him naked.

"And the best part was the look on her face!" Heather laughed using her fingers to swat away the tears that were falling down her face. Tony grumbled crossing his arms as he waited for Heather to be finished. He had a feeling that he would never live it down.

"Aww come on Tony!" Heather smiled when she quickly peered over to Tony who was ignoring her as he checked his messages. Her eyes flicked over to him again in concern before they flicked back to the road.

Heather opened her mouth to say something to Tony when a ring tone echoed through the car. Heather swore as she dug around the front part of the car searching for the ringing phone when Tony stopped her, giving her a look that told her to watch the road. Tony quickly grabbed Heater's phone and opened it.

Heather chewed on the corner of her lip as she tried to hear the conversation between Tony and who she could only assume was her mother on the other end. Tony only grunted in response to what she was asking before hanging up with a snap. Heater turned her eyes away from the wheel to get a quick glimpse at Tony.

"We have to turn around." Tony said simply sliding the phone back into a cup holder. Heather scrunched her face up and looked at the road intently.

"Why?" She asked turning into someone's driveway before pulling out. Tony braced himself before telling Heather what the phone call was about.

"We have to go pick up Kevin." He said calmly, Heather's face instantly changed from curious to anger. Heather's finger's quickly flicked the turn signal and she started to turn the car around into the original direction they were headed to. Tony's hand quickly reached across the car grabbing the steering wheel so Heather couldn't complete the turn. Heather quickly put the car into park, and they both sat awkwardly in the middle of a dark street.

Heather leaned back in the driver's seat and turned her attention out the driver's side window, as she used her hand to support her head as she looked out into the dark streets.

"He went to a party on the other side of town, you're parents told him he wasn't allowed to go, so he snuck out. Their working so they can't go get him." Tony reached across the car grabbing Heather's leg and squeezing. He knew that Heather was still upset about the stunt that Kevin had pulled. He didn't blame her because now it was difficult for Heather to go out into public.

It was only a few days ago that she had gone out to buy more supplies for his kitchen and was bombarded by a small mass of people flashing pictures and screaming questions at her. Heather had been more terrified then angry at the situation not fully understanding what was happening to her until Tony had came to rescue her from the store's bathroom.

"Come on, we can totally crash this party, so them how the cool kids party." He laughed squeezing her leg. Heather swiftly turned her head towards Tony with a raised eyebrow.

"Cool kids?" She asked her tone very serious.

"Yeah, you and me, are cool kids!" He said pointing to Heather and then himself. Tony had a large smile on his face, and he leaned forward a little to kiss Heather who was looking at him like he was crazy.

Suddenly Heather let out a snort pulling away from him so he couldn't kiss her. "You were never a cool kid." Heather said, putting the car back into drive.

* * *

Heather pulled onto the side of a house that had a few teens scattered on the yard, a few of them were throwing up and others were completely passed out. Heather shielded her nose as she stepped out of the car and gave Tony a look that confirmed that they could both smell booze, and pot.

Heather slammed the car door shut, and ignored Tony who bluntly told her that he threw better parties then that. Heather cringed at the thought of what would go on at a party Tony threw. Sure she had been to many high school parties in her day, and they were always filled with drama, sex, and drugs, so she could only assume that the same thing would go on at Tony' except most of it would have be legal.

Heather pushed her way through the open door and through the crowd of people who seemed annoyed by her shoving past them. An number of people who recognized her called out or attempted to give her props. All of which she ignored, a even larger commotion was caused when people realized Tony was following after her.

Heather was never out of his sight, and he was glad because as she was asking around for her brother and walking up a set of stairs a guy reached out to grab her bottom. He acted quickly slamming the kid against the wall, startling the few people who were around them, and Heather.

Heather struggled to get control of Tony as he gave the kid a couple of ground rules of never touching Heather again. The kid looked like he was on the verge of crapping his pants, when Heather finally got the situation under control and forced Tony to let go of the teen who quickly escaped before Tony could do any more damage.

Heather didn't question what happened; instead she entwined her fingers with his and tugged him along. This was so no one would attempt to grab out at her again, and it seemed to calm Tony down a little.

After searching for nearly 20 minutes Heather and Tony finally found Kevin who was holding his camera and snapping pictures of a pretty girl who seemed to enjoy the attention, because her face was flushed red. Her giggles could be heard as soon as they entered the room, and she looked up a little shocked to see Tony and Heather.

Kevin didn't get a chance to turn around before Heather snatched the camera from his hands and started to flick through the pictures on it. Kevin stood up grabbing for it but stopped as soon as he saw the grumpy exterior on both Heather's and Tony's faces.

"You're Heather Hart, and you are totally Tony Stark! You two are like the cutest couple ever!" The girl squealed standing up and examining the couple. This was defiantly the first time they had a fan flutter over them and rambled on about nothing, but it wasn't like they didn't expect it. They did after all have a high profile relationship.

"What's your name?" Heather asked the girl who almost died when Heather spoke to her. She started to fan her face in excitement.

"Clair!" She squealed loudly, covering her mouth in embarrassment. Heather nodded her head in annoyance as the girl continued to coo over the couple.

"Did I see brownies down stairs?" Heather asked her, the girl nodded her head, almost jumping from joy that Heather was talking.

"Do you mind getting me some while I talk to my brother?" she asked, the girl nodded her head before running off to grab Heather's request. The room was silent as Heather continued to flip through the photos and slowly made her way to the couch Kevin was sitting on and sat down at the end of it away from Kevin.

"What are you doing here?" Kevin snapped as he watched Heather continue to flip through the pictures.

"We could ask you the same thing." Tony said watching as Kevin crossed his arms in anger.

"You going to tell Dad?" Kevin sneered at Heather who looked at him over the camera. She sighed shutting the camera off, and setting it in her lap, her face completely empty of any emotion. Tony was surprised that she was taking this situation so well.

"He already knows." Heather said calmly. Kevin seemed to explode when the words left her mouth, and at first he stuttered out incoherent words, before calming down enough to talk.

"Why would you tell Dad?" he yelled a few people passing the room stopped to look at what was going on in the room. Kevin's face was flushed red as he clenched his teeth and fists. Heather opened her mouth to tell him that she wasn't the one who had told their father he was there when Kevin spat out words that were meant to hurt.

"Oh that's right, I forgot. He's my dad not yours, your Dad left your sorry ass behind." A sudden flicker of pain flickered across Heather's face, and as quickly as Tony saw it, it disappeared. Heather took in a deep breath of air, running her hand along the back of her neck.

"Jack told _your _father not me, I was just told to pick you up." Heather's voice was empty, and it was almost terrifying to hear the words from her mouth. She didn't sound human. Heather stood up and passed him the camera before she started to walk towards the entrance. A panic look passed Kevin's face when he realized what he had said.

"Heather… I'm sorry." Kevin cried standing up from the couch quickly, nearly knocking his camera to the ground. He caught it just in time to see Heather paused at the door frame.

"You can find your own way home tonight." Heather said before leaving the room. Kevin sat guiltily sat down on the couch looking at his hands for a moment then back at Tony for guidance. Tony could have told him a lot of things, but what he told Kevin only added to his guilt.

"That was pretty low she would have never expected you to say anything like that." Tony then turned his heal and walked out of the room and after Heather.

* * *

"Hey." Tony said when he found Heather sitting on the hood of his car. Her arms were crossed and she was looking at the stars. In his hand he held two red plastic cups filled with alcohol he found in the house. He wasn't sure what it was but he was sure it wasn't anything special.

"Hey." Heather said softly glancing at Tony who handed her the cup in his hands. She quickly brought the cup to her lips and swallowed a large mouth full, cringing at the taste.

"Is it that bad?" He laughed; she nodded her head before taking another sip. Tony chuckled at her reaction following her, taking a large drink of the nasty liquid.

"You okay?" He asked, pulling himself onto the hood. He cringed when he heard the hood flex under his weight, but quickly convinced himself that if anything were to happen to his precious car he could fix it.

"I, ah think so." She said looking at her drink. She swirled the liquid in the cup then downed another large mouth full of it. She coughed when the drink whet down the wrong tube and thanks to the soft rubbing of her back from Tony she quickly caught her breath again before she continued to drink.

They drank in silence for a few moments, then suddenly without warning Heather leaned over to Tony and kisses him. The kiss came as a complete surprised to him, and when Heather pulled back he felt just as surprised by her actions as the first time she had kissed him.

"Ah, not that I don't mind, but what was that for?" he asked his eyes wide and mouth hanging open in shock. He quickly shoved the cup to his mouth and quickly drank the rest of his cup, trying not to look stupid over the actions of Heather.

"For being the best boyfriend I've ever had." She laughed finishing off her drink and tossing it on the ground. A small smile spread across Tony's face as he watched Heather.

"Well maybe best boyfriend ever deserves another kiss?" He asked expecting her to reject him. He didn't expect her to lean in and press her lips to his softly. When she pulled away he couldn't help but mutter out 'wow', before silencing her giggle with his lips.

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**Please, please, please review.** Only two people did last time and it made me a little sad. Ive been thinking about going back and editing the beginning chapters...maybe changing them to third person like the rest? What do you think?


	10. Chapter 10

**Needs to be betaed. **

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Tony had never wanted to wake up beside the many women he slept with. He had actually tried to avoid it as much as possible, because women seemed to get this idea into their heads that once Tony slept with them that he might fall in love with them.

So when Tony did take strange women into his bed, he did everything within his power not to fall asleep with them. He knew he was not a morning person, and falling asleep next to one of the many women he picked could be disastrous. So he always stuck to waiting for her to fall asleep then sneaking out of the room, and leaving Pepper to deal with it.

But there was something about wakening up next to Heather's naked body pressed softly into his that meant the world to him, and even if he could barely keep himself awake at the moment, he tried long enough to watch her sleep for a few minutes.

Her black hair was out of her usual up do, and he couldn't remember when she had taken it out. He never knew how long her hair was before, but he now knew it was somewhere around the middle of her back.

He didn't hesitate to move some strands out of her face, and tucking it behind her ear. She sighed nuzzling her check into his chest her fingers running across his hip absentmindedly in her sleep. He could smell the faint sent of alcohol on her breath and the shampoo she used.

When they had both arrived home from the party, they sat down in front of his fire place and drank an entire bottle of wine while they flirted and kissed each other.

It didn't surprise Tony that Heather was a bit of a light weight, but when he found himself a bit tipsy he knew whatever they drank earlier at the party must have been spiked. The last thought he had before he passed out was how lucky he was to have her lying beside him, and how the original thoughts he had of being alone for the rest of his life, seemed so silly.

When Tony awoke the next morning his hand searched for Heather's form in the massive bed. When he couldn't feel her smooth skin next under his fingers he opened his eyes and peered around the room. Heather had completely disappeared; their clothing on the floor had been picked up and were now missing from the room.

For a moment he felt a pang in his chest which he could only assume was disappointment, he wanted to be the first one awake. He knew Heather was one of the worst people to get up in the morning, so he had silently planned to wake her up himself. He wanted to wake her by slipping his arm around her waist and kissing her shoulders and neck until she stirred.

He knew she would be annoyed with him, but he liked the idea.

Tony assured himself that Heather had to be down stairs cooking and that as soon as he showered and got ready that she would be waiting for him in the kitchen. He could only imagine the marvelous food she had sitting on the stove for him. It reminded him of how is mom used to do the same thing. A sudden smile spread across his lips as he quickly slid out of bed and started his morning routine.

He could no longer ignore the large bubble of joy that was building up in his chest and he knew Heather had to be the cause. When he was finished his shower he decided that jeans and a t-shirt would be the perfect attire for the day. Today he decided that he and Heather would spend the entire day curled up on the couch watching movies, even if he had to watch 'The Color Purple', for the millionth time because today he didn't care.

When he finished slipping on his socks Tony made his way down the stairs quickly almost slipping on the last step. The trip from there and to the kitchen seemed to be a blur but when he arrived a look of confusion crossed his face.

Heather wasn't in the kitchen.

A sudden frown crossed his face as he looked around the kitchen, it was bare and it looked as if Heather hadn't touched it since one of the maids cleaned it. A sudden thought that maybe Heather was on the deck crossed his mind, so he slowly traveled to the large glass wall that showed the pool along with the massive amounts of lawn chairs that sat around it.

His frowned deepened when he peered out of the glass to see no one. Tony swerved on his heel to when the sudden idea that maybe she had gone to the garage. It would be strange to see her down there potently working on something, but he knew that her crappy thing she called a car was acting up.

But when he opened the door garage and peered in it was completely empty and eerie silence hung over the room. Tony made his way towards the chair at his computers and he sat down his mind whizzing with thoughts.

Where was Heather?

Was she okay?

Was she safe?

Why didn't she tell him where she was going?

He then tried to assure himself that Heather was an adult and she didn't need to tell him where she was going. Suddenly Tony felt doubt creep into his veins, maybe they had moved too fast last night? Heather did after all like to disappear when she was upset.

There was a loud hiss from the doors from behind Tony. He quickly swerved around to see that Pepper had walked into the room, dressed in her usual attire and a clip board in hand.

"There you are!" she muttered walking towards him in a fluster, Tony ignored her pulling out his cellphone, opening it up and flicking to Heather's contact name. He quickly placed the phone to his ear and listened as the phone rang right through to her answering machine.

"There is only about a million things I need to talk to you about!" Pepper said in a huff, Tony barely glanced at her tapping his phone on the face of his desk. He wasn't really listening to Pepper so when she started to ramble on about something his brain wasn't processing it.

"Have you seen Heather today?" Tony asked interrupting her; Pepper gave him an odd look before closing her mouth tightly.

"No, why? Did you get into a fight? Is she okay? What happened?" Pepper rambled in distress Tony scrunched his face up in confusion by Pepper's actions before sliding his phone into his pocket.

"No we didn't fight, I just woke up this morning and she wasn't here." He said watching Pepper carefully, this didn't seem to comfort Pepper about her friend and suddenly Pepper whipped out her phone dialing Heather's number.

"Did you call her? Did she leave a note, or say anything?" She asked quickly pressing the phone to her ear. Tony could hardly believe how upset Pepper seemed to be getting over the disappearance of her friend. When Heather didn't pick up the phone a look of panic crossed Pepper's face and she quickly tried to redial the number before Tony stopped her.

He took the phone away from her turning it off, looking at Pepper who seemed to be on a verge of a break down. "I'm sure she's okay Pep. She must have just forgotten to leave a note." Tony could feel a tug on his heart as he seriously hoped that it was the case.

Pepper softly nodded her head the red tint in her cheeks quickly dissipating as she started to calm down. Tony could feel a smile cross his face as he watched the panicked woman slowly come back down to planet earth.

"You okay, you going to explode with all this excitement?" he laughed watching her scowl, which was really her trying to hide the smile that was trying to escape.

"That's not funny!" she lied as she tried to give Tony the most serious look she could muster.

* * *

Heather knew she was late, but then again she really didn't care, she tried fiddling with her phone but the screen remained black, no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't turn back on. She sighed entering the bridal shop, shoving the broken phone in her pocket. She knew she had to buy a new one, and she sighed in annoyance, she would have to reprogram it all to her liking.

A few people looked up from their racks, and she could tell that they were trying to contain their excitement of seeing her. She could suddenly feel the stress from earlier and the people in the store adding to her misery. There was no doubt in her mind that later that day, there would be rumors of her possible marriage going around. It was one of the reasons she had stopped reading her magazines, they now had her and Tony plastered all over them.

A sudden squeal interrupted the store, as a short blond woman started jumping up and down at the opposite end of the store. Heather knew who it was the moment she heard the squeal. People in the store turned and gave a dirty look to the source before continuing on with their shopping.

"Oh, Oh, Heeeeattttthhhhher! Over here!" Her high pitch voice cried as Anna waved her hand around wildly in the air. A small smile spread across Heather's face as she slowly walked to the back of the shop, hoping that Anna would stop dancing around soon.

"Look at you! Oh my Heather!" Anna cried holding her arms out to snatch Heather into what she would have called a bear hug. A wheezed reply came from Heather's lungs as Anna squeezed hard, and giggled. The small group of women who stood around Anna muttered under their breath as they watched the scene unfold. The small cluster of women standing around Anna, were Anna's sisters.

Heather was never fond of them, because she knew that like her brothers they hated her with a passion, but unlike her brothers they were able to be completely civil. This always led to awkward conversations, which Heather always tried to avoid.

Suddenly Anna's happy exterior changed into a serious stone cold look as she inched closer to Heather. Heather raised her eye-brow in confusion and stepped back her back hitting a dress rack to see what on earth Anna was doing. Suddenly Anna swerved around and told her sisters to leave. They all looked at her shocked before muttering rude comments about Anna's manners.

Anna then grabbed Heather's wrist and tugged her towards a corner of the store. Anna checked to make sure no one was around them before squealing.

"You totally got laid!" Anna shrieked grabbing Heather's hands and jumping up and down. Heather wasn't sure what the point of dragging her half way across the store, because Anna was so loud that she was positive that the whole store heard them. Heather quickly pulled her hands out of Anna's grasp before leaning forward with clenched teeth.

Heather could only imagine what the papers would say tomorrow. It was going to be something along the lines of Heather shops for wedding dress, while talking about her sex life with Tony to crazy best friend.

"I DID NOT get laid!" Heather hissed loud enough for Anna to hear, Anna pouted and crossed her arms.

"Well fine, but you and Tony still totally did it!" Anna cried poking Heather in the chest. Heather rolled her eyes and covered Anna's mouth before dragging her back into the change room.

"Even if we did, you don't need to yell it out to the entire store!" Heather snapped pulling her into a changing room and locking the door behind them.

"Oh my god Heather it's only sex, everyone has it!" Anna cried waving her hands around wildly. Heather cringed at how loud she was being; at this point there was nothing she could do to get Anna to shut up.

"Yeah but not everyone is having sex with Tony Stark!" Heather pointed out sitting on a silver chair that sat against a mirror and the corner of the room. Anna's slowly started to calm down enough knowing that Heather was upset.

"Heather?" Anna asked stepping forward a little bit as she watched her friend lean her head on the back of the chair.

"I think Tony and I are moving too fast, and I'm scared we are going to ruin it." Heather said simply using her hand to rub the side of her neck.

"And this is all because you had sex?" Anna asked a little confused where this is coming from. Heather sighed using her free hand to cover her eyes. She knew Anna wouldn't understand, since Anna was the kind of woman who was ready to marry a guy after the first date.

"The last time I moved too fast was with…."

"Jason? Oh God Heather, he was a total jerk, you can't compare your relationship to Tony with Jason!" Anna exclaimed dropping to her knees and grabbing Heathers knees. Heather peered down at Anna who gently squeezed her knees.

"Besides what happened with Jason would never happen with Tony because that man is totally in love with you!" Anna laughed poking Heather who squirmed away from her.

"He's totally not in love with me." Heather said pushing her friend's hand away from her stomach. Anna laughed and tried to poke Heather again, but her attempts were easily blocked by Heather.

"And I'm not getting married." Anna laughed standing up, she held another giggle as Heather gave her a strange look.

"Oh god, do you think so?" Heather asked her eye brows knitted together as she watched Anna walk around the small room.

"Heather, a man like Tony Stark doesn't follow a girl around like a lost puppy unless he is totally in love with her. He just doesn't know it yet." Anna watched as the words sunk into Heather head, and suddenly Heather stood up feeling her pockets for her wallet. When she found it, she pulled out her credit card and handed it to Anna who looked confused.

"Not that I have much of a choice any way, pick out my dress, you know my size. I got to go." Heather said shoving the card into Anna's unwilling hands. A look of distress crossed Anna's face as Heather shoved her wallet back into her pocket and slammed open the dressing room door.

"Wait Heather where are you going?" Anna cried, Heather quickly turned around looking at Anna with a very serious look.

"You're right about the whole relationship part, and you know what I like having sex with Tony so I'm going to go get some birth control." Heather yelled for the whole store to hear before disappearing around the corner. Anna couldn't believe what she heard so she jumped from her spot yelling at Heather to stop.

* * *

Heather's thigh was slightly sore as she walked up the large amount of stairs in Tony's house, the bags she held in her hand were heavy as she carried them. When she reached the top her eyes quickly fluttered over to Tony who stood up from the couch he was sitting on and over to her a panicked look in his eyes.

He quickly pressed his lips to her mouth and brought her into a tight hug. "Ah hi?" Heather said when he pulled away from her and looked deeply into her eyes.

"Where were you?" He asked pulling away from her. Heather was confused as she stood in the entrance of Tony's living room with massive amounts of bags in her hands.

"I went to see Anna, and then I went to the doctors." Heather said, her eyebrow arched confused. Tony suddenly grabbed Heather's face in panic.

"Why, what's wrong are you okay?" He babbled on, Heather pulled her face out of his hands, and then dropped the bags on the floor. She firmly grabbed Tony's face; he seemed to take this a bad omen because his eye's widened a little.

"Tony, I went to get birth control." Heather said kissing his lips softly before she completely pulled away from him. When Tony's brain clued into what Heather told him she had already moved herself and the bags over to the couch and she and searching through them.

"Birth control?" Tony asked stupidly, he knew what it meant, but at the time it seemed like the most convenient thing to say, because he slowly started to remember that Heather had told him she was going bridal shopping with Anna a few days ago, and he had panicked for nothing.

"Ah, well if you want to continue having sex, someone has to be on it!" Heather said as she pulled some things out of the bag and tossed them on the couch. A smile spread across Tony's face when he heard the words, sex with Heather! Who wouldn't want more?

"So, do we want to continue where we left off this morning?" Tony asked winking at Heather who completely ignored Tony. She had finished pulling things out of the bag and scooped them up in her arms.

"No." she said simply standing up and walking over to Tony who was jokingly pouting. A soft smile spread across her lips, as she stopped a few feet away from him.

"I bought you some clothes today; I want you to try them." She said softly motioning to the bundle of clothing in her hands.

"You don't want to be naked with me?" He asked with a frown, crossing his arms over his chest. A soft laugh came from Heather as she pressed her lips to his frowning mouth. He couldn't pretend to be mad at her.

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_A/N: I have bad editing skills, and I think part of the reason is the program I use, it likes to put in words by itself. So please if you see anything point it out! ALSO I sat down the other day and planned out the basics of this story, so updating chapters should be a bit faster/easier. _

**Please review. Its the only satisfaction I get_ in writing. _**_  
_


	11. Chapter 11

Needs to be edited.

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Tony always pulled in Heather's driveway with his speakers blaring, and he always skidded the car into park. This had earned him more than one 'talking to' from Heather's mother who was afraid Tony would kill something. But he didn't care because Steve thought it was the coolest thing in the world so he always pulled in like a maniac just to impress Steve.

One afternoon Tony had skidded into his parking spot at the end of Heather's drive way. He narrowly avoided hitting a few chickens who all scattered moments before he even turned the wheel to pull into his spot. Quickly he shut his car down, opening the door and sliding out to see Heather who was throwing things in the back of her Step-Father's truck.

She paused long enough for him to give her a quick kiss before continuing to throw things into the back of the truck. The bright sun was burning his eyes so he pulled the orange tinted sunglasses over his eyes and watched as Heather finished packing things in the back of the truck.

"So what's with all this stuff?" Tony asked pointing to all of the things she had neatly packed in the back of the truck. Heather slammed the back of the tuck shut, and then pulled off the ratty old garden gloves on her hands. She tossed them into the back of the tuck.

"Stuff that has to go to the farmer's market." Heather huffed simply, sitting down on the back bumper of the tuck. Sweet was rolling down the side of her face, Tony swallowed harshly thinking of very inappropriate things.

"What?" Heather asked shielding her eyes from the hot sun. A sly smile spread across his face as he shuffled around in the gravel driveway.

"Oh just thinking!" He said watching the confused look on Heather's face deepen.

"About?" she asked confused, he wanted to kiss her. Hell, he wanted to do more than kiss her.

"About how sexy you would look…" he chuckled stepping forward a few steps.

"You're disgusting!" Heather snapped standing up quickly and scooting away from Tony's grabbing hands. Tony pretended to pout when he reached forward trying to grab for her again, this time his fingers grabbing the back of her shirt, and pulling her back into his chest.

Heather squealed trying to wiggle away. A small laugh came from Tony's lips when he finally had her tightly held to his chest, there was now no possible way she could escape, and her wiggling had almost completely stopped.

"Are you going to play nice?" He playfully asked when she started to wiggle more again. Tony could hear Heather respond with a soft no that sounded as if she were giggling.

"Really?" He playfully asked and with no effort grabbed the other end of Heather and flipped her over his shoulder so her legs were being held by his hands. A loud laugh came from Heather as she started to beg Tony to put her down.

"Are you going to play nice?" Tony asked again, gently slapping Heather's behind. She was laughing so hard that he could only imagine the bright red blush spread across her cheeks.

"Okay! Okay!" Heather called out in-between giggles. Tony laughed gently setting her down in front of him. Heather let out a loud sigh when her feet finally hit solid ground and as soon as her eyes fluttered up to Tony his lips were on her mouth.

After a few short moments Heather pulled away, a small smile on her face. On occasion her right hand would then fix his facial hair before she slid it to the back of his neck, and this was one of those times. It made him want to kiss her again.

"I have to get this stuff to the Farmer's Market before it closes." She said nodding her head back to the full truck. He nodded his head not liking that Heather had something to do.

"You can come if you want?" She softly said, a large smile on her face. Tony tilted his head as if he were deep in thought, as he teased Heather about the idea. He wouldn't have it any other way, but it still didn't mean that he couldn't tease her about it.

"If you don't want to come I'll just ask my boyfriend!" Heather laughed as Tony continued to pretend he didn't know the answer. Tony faked a frown.

"And who is your boyfriend?" Tony asked pulling her in closer to him, he was slowly leaning his lips closer her, wanting one last kiss before they took off for the day.

"I bet you have heard of him! His name is Tony, and he's really good with his hands." Heather softly laughed, Tony gently pressed his lips to hers pulling away when a loud voice interrupted them.

"You two are disgusting." Jack snapped standing behind them; his two sons gave him a confused look before skipping off into the house, probably to tell their grandmother of some awesome new toy their father had bought them.

Heather completely pulled away from Tony fixing the bandanna on her head. She was trying to remain clam; Tony knew it was only a matter of seconds before Jack had gotten her so riled up it would take him forever to calm her down again.

"So what have you two just been sleeping around?" He asked sneering at Tony and Heather.

"That's not really any of your business." Heather said firmly, Jack's face twisted and he lifted his hand up to point at the couple.

"You two are, aren't you?" He asked with a laugh, and uncomfortable silence hung over Tony and Heather who were both unwilling to talk about their sex life with Jack. Jack would be the person to run and tell Heather's parents what they liked to do in their spare time.

Jack let out a barking laugh as he slapped he's knees. "Figures the little whore would have put out by now." He said, Heather stepped forward her fists clenched tightly. Tony stopped her firmly grabbing her upper arm, and motioning her towards the truck.

A scowl was deeply embedded on Heather's face as she complied with Tony's request getting into the truck and harshly slamming the door and turning the tuck on. Tony could feel the tension building in the car as he slid in.

"Don't listen to him, he's an idiot." Tony whispered but when he received a glare from Heather he tightly shut his mouth, figuring that at the moment, he should just leave her alone.

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The Farmer's Market was hot, and filled with so much fresh food that Tony thought that maybe it would be a better idea to shop there instead of the grocery store. They had just about everything imaginable and after Heather spent an hour selling her family's stalk to a few vendors at the market she stuffed the small wad of cash in her pocket.

She then proceeded to pick up a few items from the market for that week's suppers. His mouth watered when he imagined the things Heather could cook with corn on the cob, and the large hunks of meat that she purchased.

"My mom use to make the best turkey dinners." He said from the passenger side of the car. His mother didn't often cook large dinners, but when she did she went all out, buying everything imaginable.

"Really?" Heather asked with a raised eye-brow. Tony nodded his head, his hand fiddling with the glove compartment in the car.

"You never talk about your parents, what were they like?" Heather asked, Tony took in a deep breath of air, he hated talking about his parents, because he hated talking about his father.

"My Dad was never around, and when he was he never seemed fond of me. But my mother was great; I think you would have loved her." He said, a small smile crossed his face, it was faint but it was easily picked up by Heather who smiled at the fondness Tony seemed to hold for his mother.

"Tony if you don't stop, you can walk home!" Heather snapped tugging his hand away from the inside of thigh. A small chuckle could be heard from Tony as he slowly planned his next move.

"I think I saw a hidden road back there, why don't we turn around and see where it takes us?" An annoyed sigh left Heather's lips as she tried to ignore the overly sexual mannerism Tony was using.

"You're a pig." Heather stated boldly turning the car around a corner. Tony pretended to be offended, scoffing on the other side of the car.

"I'm a pig? I think you Ms. Heather Hart are a pig for thinking that's what I was thinking." Tony

"Tony, sex is the only thing you think about!" Heather snapped.

"True, but when I'm thinking about it, I think about doing it with you!" Tony gave Heather a crooked flirtatious smile.

"I don't know if I should be flattered or disgusted!" Heather frowned, her fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

"I think you should be excited and pull the car off to the side of the road." He smiled.

Heather snorted and continued driving the car trying very hard to ignore Tony as he continued to pester her, after about fifteen more minutes of Tony's annoying antics; Heather tried to ignore him with great difficulty.

Tony was too engrossed with his eyes on his cellphone, and his free hand on Heather's thigh to notice that Heather was slowing the car down to a full stop with a look of confusion on her face.

Heather's arm gently brushed his as she pulled the gear into park and started to unbuckle her seat belt.

"What's going on?" Tony asked watching as Heather slipped out of the car slamming the door behind her and jogging over to a metal fence. Confused Tony unbuckled his seat belt and slowly following after her, a deep frown on his face as he jumped over a fence that could have possibly been older than him.

At first he thought he had lost Heather until he had seen movement behind a lone tree that sat atop of a slope. A deeper look of confusion crossed his face when he realized that Heather was not alone on top of the hill, she was hovering over a large cow.

"Heather what are you doing?" Tony asked almost tripping on a rock as he made his way slowly up a hill. Heather didn't bother to look at Tony; she was too engrossed with what she was doing.

"This is one of our cows." She said simply, her eye-brows knitted together. Suddenly Heather ducked down and crawled under the cow to check its stomach. A sudden wave of panic filled Tony's chest as he watched his girlfriend crawl under the cow, and back out on the opposite side.

"Heather, let's just go home, and send one of your brothers out here to get it!" He begged as he watched the cow shifted its weight around its large hoof nearly missing Heather's foot. He clenched his jaw in panic.

"We can't." She said simply as she finished inspecting the cow, her eye-brows were still knitted together as she dusted her jeans off. There was still a light coating of dirt on her white shirt, it could have easily been wiped off but her mind was on other things.

"Why not?" He asked, her eyes fluttered away from the cow over to Tony. His face was void of all emotion, something that happened frequently when he was extremely unhappy with something.

"She's in labor." A sudden cry came from the cow as she slowly laid down on the ground and begun to huff. Heather quickly walked over to her to check on the cow again, poking and prodding the cow as she inspected.

"Birth as in its going to have a baby?" Tony panicked walking around the cow over to the side Heather was crouched on, she was gently rubbing the cow as it wallowed in pain.

"Well, what else would it have?" Heather asked standing up quickly, Tony's face suddenly went white, the idea of seeing a cow give birth crossed his mind. There is some things he didn't want to see in his life time and animals giving birth were one of them.

"We are going to have to deliver it!" Heather said seriously.

"What?" Tony choked, he could only imagine the fluids he would be covered when he was finished. He did not want to deliver a calf.

"I'm only kidding!" Heather laughed a smile suddenly spreading across her face. Tony let out a long drawn sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. Heather seemed to almost skip forward planting a gentle kiss on his chin before heading off towards the truck.

A few moments later Tony followed after her and silently waited as Heather sat in the passenger seat of the car and called someone. The conversation was short, and awkward, so Tony figured it was her Step-father she was talking to. When she was finished she shut the lid with a frustrated sigh, sliding her phone in the pocket of her jeans.

"So?" Tony asked stepping out of her way as she slammed the door closed. Heather shielded her eyes from the bright setting sun, her cheeks were tinted a soft red from the heat of the sun.

"My step-dad is coming. We just have to wait for him to show up." She said softly, Tony nodded his head in agreement as he leaned against the hot tuck. He couldn't say he was happy about the situation he was in, there was no way standing around in the heat with Heather would be comfortable or romantic.

The heat from the sun and the hood of the car quickly got to Tony and small beads of sweat started to cluster along his brow as well as the back of his neck, annoyed he brushed the wetness away.

The bright sun was blinding against his eyes, and even if he had his eyelids cramped nearly shut he couldn't see much of anything, but he could feel Heather gently wrapping her arms around his lower waste and resting her head on his sweaty chest.

He couldn't help but wrap his arms around her, her smooth skin gently brushing his sweaty and just like every time he held her, he buried his face in her hair, deeply in haling her sent.

She always smelt like her vanilla, and hairspray. It wasn't normally a sent that turned him on, in fact if he smelt it on anyone else he was sure that he would have been turned off a little, but there was something about the way she smelled that he loved. He loved it even more just after she had a shower and her long locks had spent time to dry. The smell of Heather's skin was much sexier to him than anything she could put on her body.

"I like it when you get all sweaty like this, it's sexy." Heather mumbled just barely loud enough for him. Instantly a smirk spread across his face, he moved his face down to her ear where he lazily nuzzled his face into her neck.

"I like the things the lead up to me being this sweaty!" He whispered in her ear, a groan of disapproval, he could feel the clench of her jaw on his chest before she muttered for him to stop talking. A soft chuckle passed his lips as her pulled began to pester her, sliding his hands into her back pockets.

"Hey! You guys need help?" A voice asked, Heather jumped in Tony's arms. Her head quickly snapped over to the voice and Tony could feel Heather's body tense. A second later Heather pulled away from Tony, and his eyes flickered over to the man who had suddenly made Heather so uncomfortable.

He was about an inch taller than Tony, blond hair, blue eyes, and muscles that made Tony look like a wimp. "Heather is that you?" He asked stepping forward to get a better look at her.

"No." She said simply clenching her jaw. The man squinted his eyes a sly smirk appearing on his face.

"I would know that sarcasm anywhere!" He said stepping forward a little more, and for the first time in her life Heather reached out and grabbing Tony's arm sharply digging her nails into his forearm. A look of complete fear was etched in her face, and it was hidden behind her clenching jaw.

"Can I help you?" Tony asked stepping in front of Heather almost hiding her from view her hands shifted from his arm, gently entwining themselves into the back of his shirt.

The man looked taken back by Tony's question, or by the fact that Tony Stark was standing in front of him. Sometimes Tony often couldn't tell the difference between the two.

"I just saw you guys on the side of the road and I pulled over just to make sure everything was okay." The man said with a raised eye-brow, Tony curtly nodded his head the man didn't seem to care much about what Tony was doing, because his eyes appeared to be trying to look at Heather who continued to hide half behind Tony.

"Well were fine, thanks for the help but we really don't need it." Tony snapped, he found himself slowly becoming angry with the man, he knew there was something behind him and Heather, and whatever it was, it wasn't good.

The man opened his mouth to say something to the couple when a woman came running over to them, her shoes kicking up dirt and gravel as she slowed down. All eyes were on her as she panted beside the unknown man.

"Hey Jason, is everything okay?" She asked stopping right beside him, the man beside her, now known as Jason looked irritated with her presence. She had a childish look to her, and her dark curly brown locks were pulled back into a high pony tail.

"Yeah, babe everything's fine!" Jason lied wrapping his arms around her waist. She gave him a dorky smile before turning her attention towards Tony and Heather. Her face covered with surprise.

"Oh My God!" She squealed, "You're Tony Stark! And you!" She said pointing to Heather, "You're Heather Hart!" An awkward silence filled the air as the woman pulled away from her boyfriend almost skipping over to Heather completely ignoring Tony.

"You're Jason's ex! I've heard so much of you! You are sooo lucky to score with Tony Stark!" she babbled a wide smile across her face, Tony couldn't see the look on Heather's face but he was sure it was a look of annoyance.

"You have such a great taste in men! I can see why you dated Jason, and Tony Stark! I'm soo lucky that you left Jason!" She babbled on, a deep frown passed Jason's face when she mentioned Heather's and his past relationship, and he suddenly understood Heather's actions.

"Yeah she has great taste in men!" Tony spat glaring at Jason who seemed less than happy to hear the remark coming out of Tony's mouth, because Tony knew that one of Heather's ex's beat her into unconsciousness and judging by her actions Jason had to be the one.

"Well babe they said they were okay, so let's be on our way!" Jason's voice was suddenly void of all emotion; it sent a shiver up Heather's side so she pressed herself closer into Tony who stiffened in defense. The woman standing beside them frowned looking at her boyfriend before nodding her head then slowly walking to the car, softly exchanging good byes.

"I'll see you later Heather." Jason said softly, giving her a small smile turning on his heel to head back to his car.

"No you won't." Tony murmured under his breath before turning to tend to his girlfriend.

Please review, its important to me.


	12. Chapter 12

Thank you: kikikiki, Megan O'Farrell, gymnstgrl, CaribbeanTrinidadian, and smilinsteph for the reviews.

This chapter is shorter than the others, dealing with a lot of stuff such as my sister's sickness and now a shitty landlord. I have most of the chapter's planned out so, in time I should be finished. Like always this needs to be Beated.

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Tony would have expected to see the last of Jason the very first time he had met him. He would have never expected Jason a week later to appear at Heather's house for the regular Sunday night dinner.

He could remember the panic stricken on Heather's face as she came out of the house and in a fluster of words and fear tried to explain to Tony what was happening. He couldn't understand her babbling but when he saw Jason step out of the house with a smug smile on his face he understood why she was so upset.

"_What are you doing here?" Tony snapped, shoving Heather behind him. She completely complied with his request to use him as a shield, and in her hysterics entwined her fingers in the back of his shirt. _

"_The same thing as everyone else, I'm here for dinner!" Jason said smugly brushing an invisible hair off his shoulder. Tony wanted to beat him with his fists; stepping forward Heather tugged him back, shaking her head no softly in his back._

For the entire night a bundle of emotions hovered in the air. Tony could feel an uncontrollable hate bubbling in the pit of his stomach, one that he was sure grandmother picked up on easily. She told him not to do anything stupid and that there was a metal bat in the trunk of Heather's car.

Dinner was almost painful for Tony, Heather was tightly latched to him, and from across the table he could see Grandmother giving him a look of approval that was hidden behind a mask of hate towards Jason. She would sometimes when she knew Tony was the only one looking tap a closed fist into her hand, signaling to him that Jason needed to have a beating.

"_I never told Mom or Mark what he did to me. I don't even think they know I was in the hospital." Heather murmured her cheek pressed into his naked chest. Tony shuffled around in the bed, his face etched with confusion. _

"_Why wouldn't you tell your parents?" He asked confused rubbing her arm. Heather was silent; she pulled the covers of the bed up around her chest. Tony shifted around a little allowing her to get comphy. _

"_Jason was perfect; he had never done anything to me before, so why would he suddenly beat me with in an inch of my life?" Heather's voice was just above a whisper and Tony could feel the anger raising in his chest. Sometimes he could never understand Heather's reasoning, and this was one of those times. _

"_Any man who beats a woman, Isn't a real man." Tony said loudly, Heather only nodded her head in agreement, yawning loudly before giving him a quick kiss and settling down again. _

After dinner was finished Jason, Jack, and Lucas quietly shuffled away. They had invited Tony along but he had flat out refused to do anything with them, instead he stretched out on Heather's bed as she sorted through papers. She was sitting on the end of the bed by his feet, her legs crossed and back hunched over.

"You should spend the night at my place." He boldly said his eyes were studying the canopee above her bed, it consisted of rich tones of red and gold. He could only imagine the things they could do at his house, and skinny dipping was on his list. They hadn't tried that yet.

Heather stopped sorting through her papers and paused in thought. Tossing the papers on the floor, she crawled to the end of the bed he was laying on. Tony's arms were instantly open for her as she curled up beside him resting her head on a part of his chest not covered in reactor. Her arm was wrapped around his waist and his around her back and shoulders.

"Why would I want to do that?" She asked, her fingers playfully playing with his exposed hip. He could feel his hair start to stand on end.

"Then I can have you all to myself." He said, Tony grabbed her hand pulling it away from his hip. Heather let out a soft chuckle as he repositioned her hand so it was on his chest. Heather's teasing would leave him sexually frustrated, because they tried to avoid having sex at her place. Steve liked to open doors unannounced.

"And why would I want to be alone with you?" Heather playfully asked her fingers were lazily drawing designs on his chest. Tony coughed uncomfterably as she slowly moved her fingers towards the buttons of his shirt.

"I can think of a few things." He assured her his eyes watching intently as she teased him slowly unbuttoning the first button on his shirt. Heather gently bit the corner of her lip as she flirtatiously tilted her head and rubbed the exposed flesh on his chest.

_Oh, god! How this woman drove him crazy!_

"What _kind_ of things?" she whispered, Tony could no longer contain himself, he roughly pulled Heather in for a kiss. She squeaked not expecting Tony's actions, but she quickly relaxed allowing him to slowly have his way with her. One of his rough hands was entangled in her hair, and the other slowly explored under her shit.

The feeling of Heather's skin was amazing, she like most woman had smooth skin, but Heather unlike other women he had been with used moisturizer like it was oxygen. She always had some type of moisturizer hanging around, and she often would rub in the excess cream she took on him. So he often would smell like his girlfriend, he loved this because he loved the way she smelt.

Heather and Tony were both so involved with themselves that they didn't hear the running of feet up the stairs. They were both startled when the bedroom door was slammed open and Steve ran in his hands cupping something together.

Steve didn't waste any time jumping on the bed and crawling towards the couple who awkwardly broke off their previous engagement. Heather quickly fixed the back of her hair before addressing her brother who had excitedly started to jump up and down on the bed.

"What's up?" Heather asked sitting up on the bed. Steve smiled showing Heather his hands that were cupped closed. Tony watched as Heather's eye-brows arched slightly at Steve's behavior.

"What do you have there?" She asked slowly prying apart her brother's hands. Heather's face suddenly went white and she closed her brother's hands quickly jumping back a little.

"That's not funny Steve!" She cried, confused Tony opened his mouth to ask what was going on before Steve threw what was in his hands at Heather. Tony could only describe what Steve threw at her as some kind of insect, at first he really couldn't tell what it was until she jumped from the bed screaming.

Within seconds she had ripped off her clothing brushed herself down and ran from the room screaming the entire time. Tony ran a hand over his forehead as he watched a large spider quickly crawl across the room and try to hide. A small laughed came from Steve as he jumped from the bed, and over to the spider where he picked the spider up again with great care.

"That's great Steve, why don't you give that to me and go draw me a picture?" Tony asked sliding off the bed, Steve happily nodded his head and held out his hand to Tony who cringed at the thought of being handed something, let alone a spider.

"Just leave him on the floor." Tony requested. Steve nodded his head and put the spider on the hardwood floor. Steve then quickly skipped out of the room and as soon as he was gone Tony killed the spider knowing full well Heather would be upset with him if he didn't.

"I hate spiders." He mumbled to himself, when he was finished. He hated just about anything that could scare the pants of Heather, literally.

"Are you crazy?" Lucas said watching his older brother drag in the remainder of his smoke. Jason and Jack both stood on either side of him, they both held a look of annoyance on their faces as Lucas looked between the two men.

"Come on Lucas it's not like we haven't pulled a prank on Heather before." Jack said throwing his butt onto the ground. A small laugh came from Jason as he nodded his head in agreement.

"This is far beyond a prank, you've already gone too far and you just keep going!" Lucas snapped, Jack rolled his eyes as he pulled out another cigarette and shoved it in his mouth, quickly lighting the end. Inhaling deeply he laughed letting the smoke pour from his mouth.

"So what are you on _her _side now?" Jack snapped at his brother, Lucas let out a frustrated sigh shaking his head in frustration. His brother didn't seem to understand what he was saying.

"I'm not on anyone's side!" Lucas snapped throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. Jack didn't seem to believe him because as he sucked away on his cigarette his eye-brows remained crossed. "Aren't you sick of this, it's been going on for years don't you think it should stop?" Lucas asked angrily.

"What I would like to know is why you are so fucking concerned about Heather? Are you guys buddies now?" Jack's eyes flicked over to the movement from the front door. Heather and Tony had both walked out into the front yard with an overnight bag. The couple walked what appeared to be hand in hand but he really couldn't tell standing so far back from the house.

"No, but I'm not going to be a part of it. This is stupid, were not twelve anymore." Lucas snapped crossing his arms in distaste.

"Really that's it, after all these years and after everything she's done you're just going to stop?" Jack snapped violently, a bit of spit rolled down his lip and he angrily wiped it away with the back of his hand.

"She hasn't done anything! What the hell is wrong with you! I'm done, no more!" Lucas snapped pointing a finger at his brother, Jack's frown deepened at his brother's unwillingness to participate.

Jack grimaced, grinding his teeth as he watched his brother turn on his heal. How could his brother after so many years of playing pranks on Heather and being his partner in crime walk away from him? It had to be Heather's fault, that stupid bitch had to have said something to Lucas.

"So, what now?" Jason asked spitting on the ground a few feet from them. Jack snorted as they watched Lucas walk away as well as Heather and Tony climb into his expensive car.

"We, still carry out the plan, step one is already complete." Jack said throwing out his last cigarette and kicking it in the dirt. Jason nodded his head in agreement.

"See this is what I like about you Jack, you're not afraid to put a bitch in her place." Jason chuckled shoving his hands in his pocket. Jack frowned, if anything he didn't like anything about Jason, Jason was just a pawn in his plan.

"Just do what I fucking told you!" Jack snapped walking away from Jason in a furry. Heather was going to be punished for what she did, and no one was going to get in his way.

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**Please review. **


	13. Chapter 13

This is a short chapter, I moved in with my sister this month so Ive been trying to settle down. **Needs to be betaed.**

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Sometimes it seemed the only thing that Heather and Tony did was fight, and it was usually over something stupid. Their fights consisted to a fluster of words, most of which were spat out with one intent, and this intent was to win the argument. Some people would have found it comical to see Tony and Heather argue, because they seemed more to be in a heated debate until Heather would storm off.

Tony hated to admit it, but most of the times the reasons why they never solved anything like a civil couple would was because of his 'smart mouth'. A smart mouth was the word Heather's grandmother called Tony's cleaver, witty comments that irritated Heather. He usually couldn't help it, but when Heather had worked herself up words just seemed to slip from his mouth. Things that usually seemed to make her angrier then what she was, and make her disappear for a few hours.

They were never meant mean, and he never intended to hurt her feelings, but sometimes in the heat of the fight he said things to Heather, because he could. He had never been in a relationship before and sometimes he didn't know how he should handle being with Heather, because he wanted her to stay around.

Like most fights, Tony ended up going home and working feverishly on something for hours, until he was clam enough to talk to her, this had led to a lot of things in his house being updated and he was running out of things to fix. It was during these times that he would ponder about Heather, and thought that maybe it would be better if he and Heather ended their relationship.

It was during these times that Tony had come to the realization that he was an idiot and that he was so much happier being with her then without regardless if they fought or not. His parents after all liked to fight, but he had never met a couple more in love than his mother and father.

Sure like most couples they fought, but like functioning couples they had fun together, they liked talking, and they shared common interests. He loved having sex with Heather, even if she called it 'making love', he thought it sounded cheesy and would tease her about it. He liked that she worried about him, and took care of him when he was feeling sick. Which was often because he would fake being sick just to have her curl up with him and run her fingers through his hair (he had suspected for a long time that she knew this).

Most of their fights started off with something so simple and insignificant that it escalated to a full out fight. Heather had been upset that one of her parts had come in the mail broken; she had spent hours on the phone to find out that they would not replace the part and she had exploded into a rage. It was at that moment most of the member's in the family had moved out of her way. Tony had never seen her so angry in his life and in an attempt to cheer her up said, "Well maybe if you let me buy you things this wouldn't have happened."

He would later admit it was a stupid thing to say, because Heather's anger was now directed towards him. He never in his life expected a scolding from Heather to make him feel like a child, and after a few minutes of her ranting on he had enough stood up for himself.

Tony had ended up leaving the house in a storm of emotion and starting up his car in a furry. He was so blind with rage that he didn't notice a car until the last second, and for a split second the fear of death descended upon him before darkness.

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A groan left Heather's lips as she rolled over from her beside and picked up a flashing cellphone. A look of annoyance crossed her face as an unknown number flicked across her screen blinding her temporary. She painfully closed her eyes pressing the answer button with such force she heard it softly click under the pressure.

"Hello?" She grumbled pressing the phone to her ear, the voice on the other end was soft and she could barely hear what they had said. Heather sat up pressing the phone tighter against her ear, asking them to repeat what they had said.

Heather rolled her eyes in annoyance not hearing the first part the woman on the other end said until she hear the words 'hospital' and 'Tony'. She was suddenly alert sitting up in her bed. An overwhelming feeling of fear eradicated in her chest as she chocked, and the woman on the other end continued to explain how earlier that day, Tony had been brought into the hospital with rib fractures, and a broken wrist.

Heather could barely contain herself as she wrote down the room number, on a piece of paper she found after she flicked on her lights. Her immediate stirring around her room had woken a few members in the family who irately made their way down the hallway to see what the commotion was about.

By this point Heather had hung up the phone and was throwing on a pair of dirty jeans she found on the floor and as she searched for a shirt she started to cry. Large tears ran down her cheeks as she pulled out the only shirt she could find, a shirt that belonged to Tony.

"Heather what's going on?" He mother asked tying her housecoat tightly around her waist. Heather remained stunned for a moment thinking of the events that had just happened.

Tony was in the hospital, he was okay but she could have lost him. She could have lost him and the last words she had exchanged with him were nasty. They were said in a fit of rage and didn't truly reflect how she felt about him.

Now the whole family was standing in the hallway watching Heather shake as she held the shirt tightly in her hands. Suddenly without warning Heather dropped to the floor startling even one in the hallway. Her parents immediately launched themselves across the room helping her off the floor as she tried to gain control of her body.

"Tony, he-he's in the hospital. I have to go!" Heather panicked trying to push her mother and step father off her. They both tightened their grip shocked to hear the news of Tony. Her parents then quickly grasped the reality of the situation, Heather was not okay to drive and if they allowed her to she too might end up at the hospital.

"Heather sweetie, look at me!" Her mother demanded pulling Heather's attention away from the shirt she was holding. Rivers of tears poured down Heather's face, the sight broke her mother's heart.

"I'll drive you to the hospital okay? Then we can figure out what's going on." Heather nodded her head slowly trying to piece together the words her mother was saying to her. With a smile her mother wiped a few tears away from Heather's face and helped her off the ground.

* * *

The sight of Tony unconscious in a hospital bed was almost devastating to Heather. Her parents had thought that she would have collapsed in the hallway, they didn't expect Heather to burst out in silent tears and walk across the room grabbing one of Tony's bandaged hands pressing it to her lips. There she sat in silence waiting for Tony to wake up.

Tony looked a lot better then what Heather or her family pictured; Heather of course had expected the worst. Heather had expected Tony to look something like the classic beat up man in the movies. Instead Tony had a few bruises, cuts and a split lip, as well as the wrapping around his fractured wrist. The sight was still enough to send Heather into tears.

After an hour of waiting Heather's family had left, her parents need to get back to bed because they worked in the morning, and they had demanded Heather had called them as soon as she had some new news.

Pressing her lips to his hand Heather softly leaned forward running her shaking fingers though his hair. She tried to ignore the knots and dirty fragments in his hair knowing the one of the many things she would do for Tony was kiss him until he couldn't kiss her anymore and wash his hair. A long bath with Tony seemed like an amazing idea to her.

"You really care for him don't you?" A voice asked, Heather immediately recognized it to be the voice of her older brother Lucas and didn't have to turn around to see him. He was standing in the door way his arms crossed and a grey plastic bag hanging off his arm. Heather didn't acknowledge her brother as she fiddled with the blanket pulled around Tony's chest.

"I can see why, he treats you a lot better than the other losers you dated." Lucas said stepping into the room the bag swinging on his elbow. Heather's eyes sharply glanced over to Lucas who was awkwardly smiling at her.

"What do you want?" Heather asked, the smile on Lucas's face immediately dropped into an awkward crooked frown. Lucas could tell Heather was unhappy to see him, her words were sharp and her body was stiff. She didn't trust Lucas and he could understand why. Why would anyone trust him after the many years of torturer he had put her through?

Lucas sighed walking over to the chair beside Heather ignoring the glares she was sending his way. He wanted to talk to Heather and no amount of glaring was going to get him to leave. Settling in the chair, he attempted to hand the bag to Heather which she refused. Sighing he sat it on the medical table on the opposite side of him. It was a large lunch his wife had made for Heather and Tony when he woke up. No one after all wanted to eat hospital food.

"I wanted to talk to you." Lucas said seriously lacing his fingers together. Heather quickly turned her head away from him, to look back at Tony who stirred a little in his unconsciousness. Lucas knew it would only be a matter of time before he woke up.

"Have you ever thought that maybe I don't want to talk to you?" She whispered, Lucas felt his heart stomach drop. He had expected this kind of response from her, but it didn't stop him from feeling guilty.

"I know, and I'm not surprised you hate me. But I don't want to continue this petty bickering that is going on between us." He said watching as Heather's face scrunched up in annoyance. She could feel the anger boiling in her stomach; she couldn't believe that he would bring this up when she was in the hospital with Tony.

Heather bit the inside of her lip as she tried to contain her anger. She didn't want to be kicked out of the hospital, she knew Tony would be upset with her if she couldn't come see him and she would never forgive her self if she wasn't the first person he saw when he woke up.

"Heather?" Lucas asked leaning forward to grab her hand, she jerked away from him swerving her body so he could see the anger on her face.

"Do you think this is some kind of fucking joke? Coming to me when my boyfriend is in the hospital to make amends with me? Are you serious? What did you think I would do? Agree with you? Say that after all the years of treating me like shit that it was okay? That I forgive you? I want to be best friends with you?" Heather hissed above a whisper, Lucas held his hands up defensively scared that Heather would physically hurt him. She had after all done it before.

"Heather it's not like that!" Lucas said defensibly still holding his hands up. He flinched when Heather moved suddenly her mouth agape in awe. She couldn't believe her brother had the guts to mess with her, and hadn't ran away yet. She clenched her fists tightly, getting ready to hit him.

"Then what is it like Lucas, a misunderstanding?" She snapped, Lucas could feel the fear building up in his chest the angrier Heather got, chewing on the inside of his cheek he thought of something anything to say to calm her down, and make her believe him. So he told her the truth.

"My sons' started beating up my daughter. A couple days ago we thought they had broken her arm, and when I asked them why, do you know what they said? They said that, that's how I played with you. So they thought it was okay." Lucas paused taking in a deep breath of air, his eyes started to water; he had never in his life heard a child screamed like his daughter did.

Heather remained silent as she gather his thoughts, "I think of all the horrible things Jack and I did to you, and I don't want my boys to do the same. It was wrong, and I'm a horrible person for thinking it was ever okay." Lucas ran his hand over his head as he thought of a few things he had done to Heather. Most of the things he did went beyond pranks, and the emotional damage he had caused. It was no wonder to him that sometimes she was a mess, it was his fault.

"I don't think I could ever forgive you." Heather said sharply shaking her head. The idea of her and Lucas being even friends was foreign to her.

"Do you think we could try, for the sake of my kids?" He asked hopefully, Heather chewed on the corner of her lip, her eyes on the ground. She didn't know if she could do it, she didn't even know if she could pretend.

"I don't know." Heather said softly turning her attention to Tony who was stirring a little bit more. A few groans came from his lips as he tried to force himself awake but the pain medication was making it difficult for him.

Lucas sighed know that there was only a matter of minutes before Tony was awake. Running his hand along the back of his neck he slowly stood up watching as Heather quickly sat on the bed beside Tony brushing locks of his hair away from his fore head.

"Please think about it. It would mean a lot to me if we could act like a real family." Lucas said shoving his hands in his pocket ready to leave. Heather's full attention was on Tony who she was trying to coax awake.

Lucas knew that the conversation was over and quietly made his way towards the door. "If this is some kind of prank Lucas I'll kick the shit out of you." Heather said stopping Lucas before he exited the room, He couldn't help but smile a little, anyone else they would have taken Heather seriously, but Lucas knew it was her way of saying that she was going to give it a shot.

"It's not me you have to worry about, it's Jack." He said truthfully exiting the room to leave Heather and Tony alone. Heather ignored his comment, forgetting it as soon as Lucas had warned her. Tony's eyes had flickered up and an overwhelming sense of joy spread on her face.

"Hey babe." Heather said softly brushing Tony's facial hair with her fingers. She would never in her life be so happy to see Tony; just knowing he was okay was enough for her.

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_Please review._


	14. Chapter 14

**This chapter made me want to kill myself, so its short. I think I got the point across. **

**Needs to be Beated.**

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Kevin learned at an early age that you always knocked on your parent's door. After having several scaring incidents he _always_ knocked on his parent's door regardless if it was open or closed. What he had yet to learn was to knock on his sister's door. So on the morning of Anna's wedding he ran into Heather's room to grab a tie and immediately ran out after seeing Tony and Heather in the middle of their dirty deeds. For the rest of the day Kevin couldn't even look at his sister or Tony.

Tony and Heather found the whole situation hilarious and spent the entire morning dropping hints about what Kevin had walked in on, to which Kevin would mutter under his breath that they were disgusting with a very red face.

Heather's parents were of course completely clueless about what was going on, and only gave the teasing couple odd looks when they bothered Kevin. If Heather's parents ever knew that Tony and Heather were having sex they would forever ban Tony from spending the night, or Heather spending the night with Tony.

Heather's parents liked to pretend that Heather was going to wait until marriage. Grandmother on the other hand liked to assume Heather and Tony were humping like rabbits. Grandmother had assumed right, because Heather and Tony couldn't seem to get enough of each other.

"So Tony, what are your plans on Friday?" Miss. Bethune asked throwing clothing into one of Heather's drawers. She had been ready for the wedding hours before and continued doing chores around the house as she waited impatiently. They were all waiting on Heather who was now fussing over herself. She had only just finished making sure Tony was presentable, and now worked on herself.

Tony had learned quickly that there was no point in fighting with Heather when it came to fashion, because even if she was wrong he would never win. So Tony simply stood silently as she fussed over him for well over an hour. He would never admit it, but he loved it when Heather fussed over him. This meant all of her attention was on him, and no one else.

Since they had started dating she had forced him to wear a 'new' sense of style that she liked, it wasn't much different then what he normally wore but she seemed to think he looked a lot better.

One of the many things she had taken away from him was an array of sunglasses. He was under strict law on what kinds he could wear and if she didn't approve they would disappear. So sometimes he would buy a pair (ones with colored lenses in particular) just to see how long it took her to dispose of them.

"Mom, stop talking!" Heather groaned learning forward in the mirror as she applied eyeliner under her eye. Heather was extremely private about her age, she didn't like talking about how old she was, and she didn't like having birthday parties.

Tony had to ask her mother what year Heather was born because Heather refused to tell Tony how old she was, Tony knew Heather was younger than him, he just didn't know how much younger. She had claimed that a lady never revealed her true age, which was 27.

"Oh Heather it's not that big of a deal!" Her mother lectured shaking her head as she did so. Heather grumbled finishing up her eyes, her mother then turned back to Tony who was confused about what Heather was upset about.

"Heather's birthday, we're celebrating and it wouldn't be right if you weren't there." Miss. Bethune said flashing Tony a smile. Heather had tried to hide the weekend events from Tony because she didn't even want to celebrate it herself. Her mother of course would have no say in not having a birthday party for any of her children.

"You didn't have to ask!" Tony chucked, Heather seemed displeased with his answer. Tony knew later that Heather would chew his ear off for it, but she would be secretly grateful he was there. Her bothers usually left her alone if Tony was around. Heather's mother smiled widely gently patting Tony's shoulder before shuffling out of the room.

"You're such a jerk." Heather said softly, sliding shoes on her feet at her vanity. Tony chuckled sitting down beside her.

"I'm a jerk because I want to celebrate your birthday with my girlfriend?" He laughed grabbing her waist and pulling her towards him. She frowned not liking how he found the situation so amusing. He knew she would rather hide in a hole than celebrate her birthday.

"You can celebrate my birthday with me." He laughed trying to kiss her, she pulled back pointing to her lips which were still wet. He pretended to pout when she refused his kiss.

"Celebrating your birthday with you is not a punishment, you would enjoy it." Heather said poking Tony in the chest. He held up his hands defensively, she was right, because if he had his way, they would spend his birthday together alone and naked.

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Anna's wedding was painful, Tony had tried to keep his fame under wraps but people whispered and pointed at not only him but Heather who seemed completely oblivious at the attention she was getting.

Tony was glad that Anna was dense because if she was any other bride she would have noticed that not everyone's eyes were on her, instead everyone was more interested in him and his girlfriend.

After a long ceremony (which Tony spent trying to sneak his hand up Heather's dress) everyone had moved to a large dining room with a dancing floor. Anna had chosen a simple wedding, which was mainly white, with many flowers.

Heather had explained that they had such a simple wedding because they both would rather have used the money to buy a house, than have a lavish over the top wedding. They newly wedded couple had also decided on a very cheap close to home honeymoon, so they could buy their home that much sooner.

Tony had thought about what Anna and her husband had done, and assumed if he and Heather were a normal couple that they might have done the same thing. But Tony wasn't a normal person; he had more money than he knew what to do with it. If he had Heather got married, they would probably buy the island they were going to honeymoon on.

He would also help her start her company which she was trying so desperately hard to save for. She of course would fight him for it, but she would have no choice because if they were married, it would be her money too, and not a simple hand out (which is what Heather thought it was).

Tony and Heather both sat at a large table watching people dance. They had finished eating, and Heather had gently pressed herself up against Tony with her bare feet curled up on the chair beside her.

She was flirting with Tony, while gently playing with the hair at the back of his head, and every so often his earlobe. She often did this when he was driving, and he always found it distracting when she ran her fingers through his scalp.

Tony had lost track of what they were talking about when she silently turned her attention to the dance floor. Steven was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, silently watching people dance on the floor. He looked sad, and played with his pants as watched the crowed.

"Is Steve okay?" Tony asked as Heather moved her head so she could see around a person who had danced into her line of vision. If Tony could see her face, he knew he would have seen a look of concern cross her face.

"I don't think so." Heather said softly raising a hand up to her lips in though. She then stood up, leaving her shoes behind to walk over to Steven. Tony would have fallowed if the events before him didn't unravel as quickly as they did.

Heather had walked over to Steven sitting down beside them, they had exchanged a few quick words before Heather sighed and grabbed her brother's hand. She then pulled him to the center of the floor; a large smile suddenly appeared on Steve's face.

Tony silently watched from the chair as Heather gently wrapped her arms around Steven shoulders. She had a soft smile on her face as she said something to Steven, he couldn't hear what Heather was saying but he was sure it was words of encouragement. Steve nodded and shyly wrapped his arms around her waist. Tony suddenly understood that Heather was teaching him how to dance.

Watching Heather teach Steven to dance looked almost painful, he stumbled moved to fast among other things but Heather was patient assuring him that everything was okay every time he made a mistake. For a moment Tony thought that maybe Steven would give up, but when he finally got the hang of it he was even a better dancer then Tony.

The joy on Heather's face as she danced with her brother pulled strings on his heart. She laughed with her brother her perfect teeth flashing for everyone to see.

It was at that moment Tony had come to the realization of something that had been building in his chest over the past couple of months. He was in love with Heather.

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**Please review, point out mistakes ect.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thank you, MissCaityGrace, Vilentiel, and kikikiki for the reviews.**

**Needs to be Beated.**

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Heather had tried very hard to weasel her way out of her own birthday party. Tony had found this very humorous, and started to tease her that she was becoming an old lady. He told her she should join his side of the fence, since he was in his early 30's and Heather still had a couple of years to catch up to him. Heather quickly became irritated with Tony and attempted to give him the silent treatment.

This only made matters worse for herself, because Tony assumed this was a game and continued to pester her, until she told him he would be sleeping on the couch for the next couple days if he didn't stop. This is when Tony took the threat seriously, he knew Heather would lock him out of the bed room, she had done it before.

Tony had spent a large amount of time thinking about what he was going to get Heather, and when he finally figured it out he was extremely nervous. He was unsure of how Heather would react, and he had implanted ideas in his head that were a lot worse than how she would actually react.

He expected she would ask him to leave, and then never talk to him again. She would get her Step-father to return all of his things, and her step-father would tell him how much of an idiot he was. Tony swallowed harshly when he thought of the idea.

From Monday to Friday morning Tony had massive amounts of meetings outside of the country. He figured if he saw her any of these days before her birthday he would rethink her gift. Then he would be empty handed, because he couldn't think of anything better. He also knew that he would be impossibly tired when he arrived home to celebrate Heather's birthday.

Heather had tried to talk to him into sleeping all day before coming over for dinner, because she knew he would fall asleep and possibly not show up until Saturday. He of course caught on, and was going to do everything with in his power to show up Friday morning.

Too tired to drive, Tony had Happy drive him to Heather's home with the gift from Pepper and Happy in the back seat. Tony's gift sat snuggly in his lap as he held onto it tightly for dear life.

When Happy pulled into the drive way, Tony slowly got out stretching his tired legs as he slowly made his way to the front door. Without a second thought he opened the door letting himself in. He had been over so often that Heather's mother got upset when he knocked.

When he walked in, his nose was hit with the smell of flowers, and cooking food. He had made sure every day since he had been away, a dozen flowers were sent to Heather's house, the last dozen being roses. Roses of course weren't her favorite, but they were the most expensive in the store.

Heather had sent him text messages every morning when she received the flowers, joking with Tony that he better come home quick because, she was 'getting flowers from a mystery man who fancied her'.

The texts had made him chuckle because even if she wouldn't admit it, he knew she loved the gifts he was showering her with. Tony quietly placed Pepper's and Happy's gift on the small table in the kitchen greeting the two oldest women in the household.

Tony's gift still remained snug in his hands. He wanted Heather to open his gift in private. It was wrapped poorly, because Tony quickly gave up when he couldn't figure out how to wrap it neatly. Pepper had offered to do it for him, but he refused and scolded at the thought of her amazingly wrapped presents.

"Oh Tony, the flowers you sent Heather are so wonderful!" Miss. Bethune boasted. She had a dreamy look on her face, and Tony could only assume that she was thinking about how romantic it was. He was sure that while he was away she bothered her husband as to why he didn't do something like that for her.

"Heather is still upstairs in bed!" Grandmother said with a smile, there was no doubt in his mind that she was implying Tony and Heather would be up to something. Heather's mother on the other hand didn't catch on.

"If you can get her out of bed it would be miracle!" Miss. Bethune stated dramatically. Tony couldn't help but smile, he knew Heather wanted nothing to do with today's events so she would try anything to get out of it. With a quick flash of his smile he slowly made his way upstairs.

Heather's room was dim and when he slowly tip toed into her room, she didn't stir. He quickly placed his gift on the night stand beside her bed, before slipping into the bed with her. His chest glowed brightly under his shirt giving him a better view of Heather who was still in her pajamas with her long raven hair messily spewed all over her pillow.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and slowly started to tease her awake, using his mouth to kiss her shoulder, and slowly make his way towards her neck. Suddenly she stirred, shifting her body so she could roll around and face him.

Her warm hand slowly invaded Tony's shirt as it made its way up his chest and resting just right of the reactor that hummed heavily.

"Your Mother says its time to get up." He said softly trying to pull her closer to him. She groaned, in distaste.

"Tell her I'm not feeling well." She murmured, burying her face into the side of his neck. She inhaled the smell of his cologne. She wasn't sure what it was because every time she had tried to sneak a peek at the bottle he hid it. It had become a silly game they played and though she didn't care enough what it was, she never wanted him to change it.

"She also said, if you don't get up she will show me those pictures you hid in the attic!" He laughed, he could imagine her mother waving around the spoon in her hand, with the other placed firmly on her chubby waste.

"She's bluffing." Heather mumbled from inside his neck. He could feel her soft lips moving against his skin, and he cleared his throat in discomfort (his mind was clearly in the gutter).

"She also said that, she knows you hid them in the rafters." Suddenly Heather sat up and quickly scooted to the side of her bed, mumbling that she was finally awake. He couldn't help but chuckle, he would eventually find out what the pictures where in the attic. Heather's mother had promised him, because as she said 'they are the most adorable pictures of Heather he would ever lay eyes on!"

Heather slowly started to get dressed, and much like her morning, the rest of the day felt slow. Tony watched as the family awkwardly tried to celebrate a birthday Heather was not willing to. She finally loosened up around dinner time, and even though she still wasn't too thrilled she pretended to at least be having fun.

The family was just about to sit down to unwrap gifts when Heather wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. She pressed her face against his back as she sighed deeply. Tony couldn't help but want to turn his body and bundle her up in his arms so when she tiredly pulled away from him, he drew her into his arms.

"Hey watch where you're pointing that thing." Heather softly said when she pulled away from him. Her fingers gently poked at his belly button, that was definitely directed towards her. He chuckled grabbing her hip, learning in for a quick hiss.

"I don't think that's the thing you should be worried about pointing at you!" He chuckled, Heather suddenly pulled away a look on her face that showed she was less impressed with the comment.

"What?" He asked his smile raising on his face, he knew he was in trouble. Heather was usually on board with sexual comments, to a point. Tony always took it too far, and she would always give him a look. This look was usually some sort of scowl, where her nose was slightly scrunched up, with a slight frown.

"You're disgusting!" She mumbled wrapping her arms around him a third time ignoring the look of confusion that crossed his face. Normally Heather would scowl and walk away, Grandma would then find him and asked him what he said, which usually earned him a high five. At least someone liked his jokes!

"Hey, are you feeling alright?" Tony asked, but before she could reply the phone rang. She sighed pulling away from him to answer the phone. A look of concern passed his face as he watched her. The call must have been for her because he watched her roll her eyes as the person on the other end of the phone tried to wish her happy birthday.

An uncomfortable feeling settled in Tony's stomach, that he couldn't just shake as he waited for Heather to finish her phone call. Her hand had moved to her temples and as she rubbed them she finished up her phone call. With a click of the phone she continued to rub her temples.

"I-I think I'm going to lay down." Heather stuttered as she attempted to pass Tony. She tried to balance herself with one arm before her knees gave out. Tony had quickly grabbed her but the weight of her fall, and the fear of hurting her caused him to come crashing down on the ground his arms almost around her midsection.

Heather quickly started to seizure. Very few things ran though his mind, as he awkwardly held Heather in his arms as her body jerked around wildly. The first being concern over her, he hardly felt the hot splash of saliva soak through his jeans. Or notice that her mother had walked into the room, and immediately made sure that everything except Tony (who really should have been) were away from her.

The seizure lasted no longer than 30 seconds, but felt like a life time to Tony. When she was finished an eerie silence hung in the air, and he now noticed the accumulation of on lookers in the room. Deep ragged breaths could be heard from Heather as she gripped tightly onto Tony.

He knew she would be confused at first and he knew that she would start crying as soon as she figured out what was going on. Tony immediately began to hush her rubbing her back and pulling her into him closer. So when the tears started to roll down her cheeks he was ready.

"It's okay, honey. Everything is going to be okay!" He hushed her.

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Tony had tucked Heather in, with such care and gentleness that Pepper would have teased him. Heather would sleep for a few days, and she would of course not want anything to do with the world for a few days. Tony had wanted to stay but he knew Heather well enough that she wouldn't want to see him after the incident, because she had explained to him once that once you lose all control of your body like that, and your body does all these disgusting things, you really don't want to see anyone regardless of how much you love and care for them.

He couldn't understand what that felt like, but he made sure that flowers and a ridiculous stuffed animal were at her bedside before she woke up. When he received a text that Heather was awake he called her to make sure she was okay. Then for the next couple of days he continued to text her until she was ready to see him. For a moment he almost forgot about his gift he had given her, until a week had passed and she had asked if they could have some alone time at his place. Heather's mother had been babying her and she just wanted somewhere to relax for a couple of days.

When he had picked Heather up she was in her room, with her PJ bottoms still on. He could tell she was ready to leave just the way she was because she didn't shy away from him seeing her with no make-up. It was almost like she had forgotten she wasn't wearing any, and he didn't want to say anything because he always thought Heather was beautiful.

She hugged him tightly when she first saw him and he couldn't help run a hand along her exposed hip, and kissing her passionately. It was then when he asked her if she was ready that he noticed his wrapping paper in the waste bin.

She had unwrapped his gift, but she didn't say anything. He quickly looked around the room to see if she had put it up, he felt his heart drop when she in fact didn't. He felt with drawn from Heather over the next couple of hours; because he felt that she had rejected his gift. He had put so much thought into it that he didn't know if they should talk about it.

After a few hours of the twisting feeling in his gut he announced loudly that he was going to have a shower as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand. He chose a cold shower at first, but after his body was almost numb and shivering he turned the water hot.

'Maybe', he thought to himself 'I should just pretend it didn't happen'. Pretending it didn't happen was going to be near impossible but he didn't want to let go of what he had with heather. Regardless of how she felt about his gift.

Tired of being in the shower he turned it off, and stepped out into his overly large bathroom. Heather had always joked that the bathroom was so big that they could fit all of her brothers into it, and a couple of cows. She had asked him if this was a possible prank they could play, and he always refused. He didn't want her brothers wrecking his things!

He used a towel to dry his face off before tossing it into the laundry basket. His keen eyes suddenly picked up something out of place. His counters that were usually spotless (except for some decorations, and soap) now had a picture frame sitting in the middle of the counter. He had never seen the picture frame before, and as he approached it he took in a few things about it.

The first being it was in the shape of a heart, that sat lazily on one of its sides, it silver and very heavy. It wasn't huge but big enough for him to see the picture in the center. A picture of him an Heather at the wedding, He had been whispering something into Heather's ear and whatever it was (which he was sure it was perverted) made her laugh.

He stood smiling at the photo for so long that he almost didn't notice the small inscription elegantly etched in cursive writing along the side it sat on. He could instantly feel his heart jump to his throat as he read it, '_you have my hart'._

Heart was of course spelt wrong, but it gave it a lot more meaning then if she had spelt it correctly. Tony felt as if he were on top of the world, he would have never of expected a gift to make him feel that way.

With a towel wrapped around his waist he walked into his bedroom to find Heather sitting patiently on his bed.

"Really?" He asked his smile crooked. Heather chewed on her lip before nodding her head in agreement. He was flabbergasted, and as he sat it down on a dresser in his room she spoke.

"I know you searched my room for the gift you gave me. Just like I know if bothered you all day today that you didn't see it proudly on displace. But what you don't know is, I tucked it away until I could give you that." Tony was silent as he waited for her to continue, she nervously looked down at her pajama bottoms.

"I bawled my eyes out you know." She said referring to her gift, "You would have had no idea how much it meant to me unless I did that." She said pointing to the picture frame.

Tony could feel his heart swell, at her words. No woman had ever put that much thought into him, and he didn't even want to question when she got the time. He didn't need to know any more because it was perfect. He closed the gap between the in a few short strides and passionately kissed her. He never in his life felt like he did at that moment.

And at home safely tucked away in Heather's closet was a small glass case with the glowing reactor that saved his life, and the words 'Proof Tony Stark Has a Heart' engraved on it.

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AN: Just in case: Tony gave Heather his reactor, because he was giving Heather his heart. Letting her know he loved her.

**Please review.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Needs to be betaed.**

**Thank you, UnperfectButLovingIt, kikikiki , and ren-hatake for your reviews. **

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The thing about the flu in the Bethune house hold was, if one member of the family got sick, they all got sick. So it wasn't uncommon for the family to avoid each other like the plague if one of them was sick.

Tony had always found it funny, but when the flu quickly swept through the family leaving Heather the final member Tony really felt bad for her. She spent most of her time curled up on her side, miserable with a bucket. She didn't even want to watch her favorite movie, which was a bonus for Tony when he decided to spend some time with her.

He would admit that spending time with Heather when she was sick was purely selfish reasons. Heather would just want to stay curled up beside him, and he would always get free reign of the television. There was the odd time that the couple would want to see something together, but that was rare. Heather liked old movies, and romance (though she was VERY picky about what romance movies she like). Where Tony liked action packed movies, and pretty much any move most teen males loved.

It was late one night during his movie marathon when Tony had decided that he was going to spend the night. Heather was dozing off, and the heating pad she was holding to her stomach had shut off. The heat from the pad was slowly cooling down, and Tony was very comfortable.

"No, you can't spend the night!" Heather whined tiredly, she attempted to smack him on his arm, but it felt like nothing more than a gentle pat. Tony laughed at her lame attempt to kick him out of her bed, but she quickly gave up when she realized that he was not going to move.

This had been a similar scene earlier that morning when he showed up with a smile on his face. He had snuck a kiss out of her, and managed to curl up in bed with her before she figured out what was completely going on.

"I never get sick!" He boasted, pulling her closer to him. She groaned in protest, as he cheerfully flicked through the channels to find something else _he _wanted to watch.

"Never?" Heather asked sarcastically, if she were well she would have raised an eye-brow in question. He nodded his head in agreement, not catching the very poor sarcasm coming from her.

"Yeah, I use to have to fake being sick so Mom would let me stay home." He said, comfortable silence hung over them when he had mentioned his mother. He did it often by accident, but Heather had never really heard him talk about his father. Just like Heather never talked about her's.

That was one of the things they both had a silent agreement on never to talk about, because simply neither of them wanted to know, or wanted to see the other get upset.

"Yeah Mom caught on eventually, but I think she liked having me home, and let me get away with it more often than I thought." He said, Heather nodded her head in agreement. Her mother liked to baby her, and she was a grown adult. It would be understandable that his mother would do the same.

"My mother would have beat you with the spoon if you tried that." Heather said though a loud yawn. Tony cringed as he thought about that wooden spoon meeting his backside. It had only happened to him once, and that was because he had gotten a little too friendly with his hands.

Tony had grabbed Heather's bottom one morning and her mother had caught him, and whacked him a good one. The smack had not only scared him, but left a large purple bruise on his back. He couldn't sit right for a few days, and suffered endless teasing from Heather, who offered him a grope of her bottom more than once.

He never again attempted to handle Heather like he did that moment out of fear of her mother lurking around. This didn't mean that these same rules applied at his home.

"How many times did you get the spoon for that?" He asked, shifting a little on the bed.

"Twelve." She said softly before falling into a deep sickly slumber. The next morning Tony had woken up sick as a dog.

* * *

"I don't like where this is going." Jason snapped at Jack who looked annoyed that Jason suddenly had a change of heart, and only because he didn't agree with one part of the plan. Jason could feel the anger bubble in his stomach, and for a moment thought about backing out.

"Just shut up and do what I told you. Part one of our plan is already complete, and if I wasted all that money for you to fuck up, I'll be pissed!" Jack snapped at Jason who frowned. He wasn't sure what the first part of the plan was, but Jack had simply stated that if you wanted to hurt someone badly then you hit them where the heart lies.

"Fine, but this better work! I don't want to do all this work for nothing!" Jason snapped folding his arms over his large chest. He didn't like where this was going, and he had a feeling that at some point Jack was going to try and screw him over.

* * *

Tony and Heather had felt a little bit better a few days later, but they still continued to take it easy. The couple didn't even note the comfortable silence they sat in when they watched television, or when Tony watched Heather read a book. But Tony was tired of picking what to watch.

After leaving the channel on a movie he huffed and pushed himself out of the bed. Heather looked up from her magazine to see what he was doing. She didn't actually care, but the movement had distracted her from her task, and it was a normal reaction for her to look at the disturbance.

Tony noticed the flicker of her eyes, and muttered something to her about food before disappearing off downstairs. The family had all eaten dinner (Heather and Tony stuck to soup) and he could feel his stomach rumble for something with more substance.

Opening the fridge he slowly searched for something Heather had made. He gasped happily when he found what he was looking for, the container was cold, shaped oddly, and old. He could tell that they family had used it way more than once, and made a mental note that maybe for Christmas he could buy them a new set.

He shut the fridge behind him and turned on his heel to pick grab a fork when he jumped back in surprise. A woman with a childish face, and dark curly locks leaned over the counter to look at him. Tony slightly surprised that she had snuck up on him, blinked confused before letting out a muffle hello.

She smiled clearly happy that Tony was talking to her. She gently bit the corner of her lip before fluttering her eyes down to look at her hands that were neatly intertwined with each other. She was clearly flirting with him, and he was clearly not interested.

She slipped away from the counter, and as Tony's eyes curiously followed her walk around the counter he tried to figure out who she was. He wasn't sure he had seen her before, but he was positive she knew him.

"I've been thinking about you." She said chewing on her lip, gently tilting her head as she approached him. He suddenly knew she was up to no good, it didn't take a genius to notice the way she walked towards him and her eyes kept flicking from his belt to his face.

"Is that right?" He said stepping back and slamming his back into the fridge in a panic. His eyes quickly looked around the room for an escape which was clearly located behind her. He swallowed nervously, if Heather were to walk in right now, she would flip out.

"Well ah, it was nice to meeting you." He said trying to step around her, she moved in his way prevent him from leaving.

"I really like you Tony." She flirted fluttering her eye lashes.

Heather had hardly noticed that Tony had been gone a long time. In fact the thought barely crossed her mind as she flipped tough her magazine, but when he did return she hardly looked up from her magazine.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" She asked when the bed dipped down on Tony's side. She couldn't smell any food and before she had time to question it a familiar voice spoke.

"I think I did." Heather jumped quickly turning her attention to her ex, Jason. For a moment she sat in the bed shocked before she tried to push herself away from him. She tried to push the blankets away from her, before she completely crashed on the floor the blankets still wrapped around her.

"What are you doing here?" She sputtered finally kicking the blankets away from her. Jason smiled; Heather was in expensive lingerie, which Jason could only assume Tony had bought for her. It consisted of a pair of black lacy underwear, and a matching spaghetti tank top. He couldn't see her private parts, but he already knew what she looked like naked, so he didn't have to imagine much.

Jason pushed himself off the bed, walking around the end and towards her. Heather tried to escape but found that he had cleverly trapped her. In a panic she pressed herself into the wall as far as possible. He had her right where he wanted her.

"You're going to leave Tony!" Jason said with a snarl slamming his hands on either side of her head. Heather whimpered and closed her eyes, images of the time he beat her running though her mind. If this were any other man she would have punched him in the face before he had the chance to even think of threatening her, but Jason always terrified her. He was the first guy to beat her so badly she might have died.

"N-no." She stuttered, the thought of leaving him broke her heart. She loved Tony, she couldn't do that to herself, or him.

"I don't think you understand." Jason said grabbing Heather's neck and jerking her forward. She whimpered at the contact, Jason could suddenly feel himself losing control. It was part of the reason he didn't want to be around Heather, because the last time he had gotten lucky. The only reason she didn't report him was because she was too scared.

"You will leave Tony, or else." Heather wasn't sure what the or else meant but she was sure it wasn't good. She couldn't think straight when he pulled her closer to him, his anger rolling off him I wave. So when she shook her head no, Jason exploded.

He grabbed her harshly by her arms as if he were going to throw her across the room when she tried to push him off using her nails. She cried out in horror as she could only imagine what he was going to do with her next. He never expected her to be this stubborn with him, and it made him angry, very angry.

Suddenly Jason was ripped away from Heather, and she collapsed to the ground in shock. A very angry Tony, grabbed Jason by his hair, and in the tussle of anger Jason ended up in the floor with in minutes with a bloody broken nose, and split lip.

"If you ever touch her again, I won't have to kick the shit out of you. I'll get my lawyers to do it for me! If I ever so much as see you around here again, I'll beat the living day lights out of you." Tony was prepared to beat Jason within an inch of his life.

He had never been so angry in his life, as he had been that moment when he walked in to see another man rough housing a woman, let alone his girlfriend. Jason nodded his head in understanding, before quickly pushing himself off the ground and running out of the room.

When Tony was sure Jason was gone, he turned around to check on Heather who was standing in the corner of the room shaking. Tony was instantly at her side, his hand cupping her face to make sure she was okay.

"I'm okay, just shaken up." Heather said softly, leaning into his warm hand. Tony nodded his head before bundling her up in his arms tightly. He held her for what only seemed like a few short seconds before he released her.

"I never thought he would attempt to do something to me again." She said softly, her fingers gently running along his jaw, before stopping to straighten his facial hair. Tony frowned, thoughts about what had occurred in the kitchen only moments before reeling thought his mind.

"I think his girlfriend was in on it too." He said seriously, Heather looked at him confused. Tony swallowed not knowing how Heather would react.

"Jason's girlfriend tried to seduce me in the kitchen before running off in tears." Tony said Heather's face scrunched up in more confusion and anger.

"Why would Jason's girlfriend try to seduce you, then run away crying?" Heather asked stepping away from Tony. He studied her body language carefully, and he knew that she was angry.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling they were both in on it." Heather's face remained scrunched up as she thought about what Tony was saying.

"From now on, if you see Jason I want you get away from him as quickly as possible. Tomorrow morning I'm calling my lawyers to get you a restraining order." He said, Tony's face was almost void of emotion, he was thinking of many things, but the first was her safety. It would be easy for him just go and beat Jason within an inch of his life, but society frowned upon those kind of actions.

"Tony don't you think that's a little extreme?" Heather asked, she was clearly distressed by the idea because a restraining order was only a piece of paper telling Jason he had to stay away, and she was positive that when one was filed against him he would be angry. She feared that he would come after her or Tony when it was filed.

"Heather, this is completely serious. There is something wrong with that man, and I'm going to do my best to protect you. If that means I have to file for a restraining order, or even you moving in with me, I will do it. I can't lose you." He ranted, he almost spoke to fast for Heather to hear what he was saying, so when he sat down on the edge of her bed frustrated and running his hands over his face. She slowly pieced together what he had said.

She figured she could fight with him, but she knew Tony wasn't asking for anything unreasonable. He wasn't going to attempt to trap her in doors, or not allow her to see friends; he was simply just trying to keep her everyday life safe.

Heather crawled on the bed beside Tony using his shoulders to support her movement as she settled down beside him.

"You would want me to move in with you?" She asked, she couldn't help but smile. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks, and the fluttering of butterflies in her stomach. Tony removed his hands from his face too look at her, he tried to be playful with her, but he couldn't. Not after the occurrence that happened only moments ago.

"Always." He said, watching the smile get even wide on her face. Her beautiful teeth flashing, he was suddenly well aware of what she was wearing. He swallowed the buildup of salvia in his mouth.

"Move in with me." He demanded, watching her curl her knees up, and using them for a rest for her face. Her smile changed, and her teeth were no longer showing, but a smirk radiated across her face, her eyes sparkling.

"In the new year." Heather said slowly. Tony could feel the twisting in his stomach, that was too far away for him.

"Why the new year?" He almost wined, Heather softly laughed. Sometimes Tony reminded her of a young boy.

"Mom is going to retire, and start a home business, so I won't be needed around the house anymore." Tony had heard the family talking about her mother retiring, but he didn't know she wanted to start her own business.

A sudden smile crossed his mind, if Heather was no longer needed at home, she would move in with him. This meant that she would no longer have her family distractions, and he could have her almost completely to himself.

"The first day, of the new year!" He assured her with a smile on his face.

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	17. Chapter 17

**I try to update as much as possible, but college is in the way (as well as other emotional issues). Which is okay since my hard work paid of, and I got into nursing at one of the schools I wanted.**

**Thank you, Ryle Culler , ,MissCaityGrace , Angel JJK ,ren-hatake , and kikikiki for the wonderful reviews.  
**

**Needs to be BETAED.**

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Tony had entered not only himself, but Heather into a charity event where designers and scientists around the world invented something or improved something that would change the lives of persons in third world countries. At the time, Tony didn't know what he had signed them up for, so when Pepper reminded him the dead line was two weeks away Heather nearly threw the couch at him, and demand he slept on it for the rest of his life.

Tony of course remained calm and collected throughout the whole experience and within twenty minutes had a plan on how they were going to win this contest. Of course he didn't win anything really; it was pretty much just a publicity stunt and bragging rights. But for Heather, it would mean that she was in the lime lite more, and possibly would get her better opportunities with her dream garage. She had refused any help from Tony, so he planned around her to make sure that she had some connections.

Tony had decided that they were going to redesign a water pump that was not only environmentally friendly, but also filtered the water from harmful bacteria. Their work load started off pretty slow, but as soon as their materials were in, they both seemed to quickly piece together their project. They were only hours away from a completed pump, as well as the presentation that needed to go along with it.

Heather knew nothing about presentations, so while Tony worked on a small presentation for them, she finished up the small finishing touches on their project. They were both completely caught up in their own world until a shrill scream came from Heather that startled Tony. He had almost dropped what he was holding when he looked up to see Heather soaked to the bone, and one of his robots looking down in shame.

"I HATE YOU!" Heather yelled at the machine before storming out of the garage in a spit of anger. She would have slammed the glass door behind her if; he hadn't built it so it was impossible. He watched as Heather stomped up the stairs and out of sight before turning his attention back to the robot who was trying to sneak away.

"You're lucky I don't have time to take you apart!" He said pointing to the machine that almost seemed to bow its head even lower in shame. Tony shook his head in frustration as he tried to go back to his work but after about twenty minutes he realized that Heather wasn't coming back down. Bored, and alone he followed her wet trail upstairs.

He figured that she would be in his bedroom; because it was the only room in the house she kept her clothing. After the long hall up the stairs he found his way to his room. All the lights where on, and Heather lay curled up on her side, under the blankets, watching the waves outside of the massive window.

He could tell that a storm was coming in, because the waves were harshly slapping up against the rocks, and there was dark clouds casting over what would have been a beautiful sunset.

"Are you alright?" Tony asked his girlfriend, he was generally concerned about her because it was unlike her to just curl up in bed and watch the waves outside (at least not after she had stormed out of a room in anger). Heather didn't respond, and a look of confusion crossed his face as he slowly trailed over to her side of the bed.

Much to his surprise Heather was asleep, and it made much more sense to him then her simply just watching the storm rolling in. His eyes could barely catch the silky red straps of her pajama top, or the soft dampness of her hair. He figured she must have been exhausted after spending many hours in the garage helping him complete the project.

Tony mumbled something to himself before checking his watch. He counted how many hours he had been awake and was surprised to find that they had both been up for over 48 hours. The realization suddenly brought on a wave of tiredness. Being curled up next to Heather in a deep slumber sounded a million times better then working on their project. First he just needed to shower, even if it was just a quick one.

Heather was always amazed with his bathroom, and often spent longer amounts of time in the shower then she would at home. He didn't blame her, because she lived in a house with only one bathroom, and as a rule they were not allowed to lock the doors when having a shower. This rule was set in place because of Steve. The family found if he couldn't reach the bathroom, disaster entailed. Tony always disobeyed this rule, because even if he normally didn't care who saw him naked, he didn't want Heather's family seeing him. It would be something he would never live down.

After a short shower Tony stood in front of his large mirror finishing the few final touches in his nightly bed routine when he saw it. At first he wasn't sure what he saw, but when he did a double take a feeling of confusion and fear took over him. Beside the glowing reactor in his chest, was a collection of elaborate dark lines. He had never seen them before. They were short lines, and looked as if they had recently just started to spread.

He found himself muttering a few curse words before trying to step closer to the mirror in order to get a better look. With an absent mind he ran a few fingers over the lines feeling little to no difference in his skin. This worried him.

Suddenly all thoughts of curling into bed with Heather were gone. He needed to find out what was going on to his body, and as he grabbed a pair of clean clothes out of his bedroom he swore to himself that he wouldn't tell Heather. At least, not until he figured out what was wrong.

A feeling of dread washed over Tony as he sat in his living room running over the results in his head. He was beyond tired, and he could barely think straight. The palladium core in his chest was slowly killing him, and he needed to find a replacement before it killed him.

* * *

He had promised himself that he would tell Heather as soon as he found out what was wrong, but how do you tell someone you love that you're dying? He couldn't think of anything, he wasn't good a breaking bad news to people, and he didn't want to break it to Heather. She would be destroyed.

It would change everything about their relationship, and he knew that she would look at him differently. People always did when they were around someone they were dying, and he couldn't handle Heather being different. He needed her to be herself and for the moment without her knowledge, he needed her to be the strong one.

It was at that moment that Tony made a decision; he was not going to tell Heather what was happening. Even if for some miracle he figured out how to fix his problem, and to make sure she never found out, he wasn't going to tell anyone what was going on. From this moment on, he would carry the burden of his impending death on his own.

The sound of Heather walking down the stairs interrupted him. She was still in her pajamas, and her hair was tied back into a messy ensemble that made him smile. Even when she wasn't trying she was still beautiful. She yawned as she passed him briefly running her hand through his hair, in her ritual morning greeting before walking into the kitchen where she began to make breakfast.

If anything the motion had only justified his thoughts, and Heather was completely unaware of it.

* * *

"Where is the boy of yours?" Grandmother asked. Heather sat on the couch with a glass of ice in her hands, she shrugged grabbing one of the cubes with her fingers plopping it in her mouth where she chewed it and swallowed.

After their presentation Tony had barley been around, he had spent a large amount of his time withdrawn into his projects. Heather wish she could say it was something she had never seen him do before, but it was common for him to do such things.

She knew he would popup in a few days, extremely tired from his massive work load, and horny from his lack of time spent without Heather. She wasn't at all too worried, because besides her now missing boyfriend, Heather had an order she needed to complete.

She and her family had both been surprised when she got a phone call from a big time movie director who wanted her to design a bike for an upcoming movie. She had spent the past couple of days working with the director to create the perfect sketch of the bike he had in mind, and now that it was complete she was working on putting it together, only stopping when she was waiting on a part to be ordered.

"OH! I do hope he shows up soon! I have something for him!" Grandmother said slightly bouncing around on her feet. Heather gave her Grandmother a questioning glare, knowing whatever she had planned was possibly not going to work out in her favor.

"Don't give me that look young lady! What business I have with him is none of yours!" She snapped watching Heather roll her eyes. Heather although curious what the older woman was planning, knew not to get involved. Her grandmother was crazy, and she knew that whatever she had planned she would find out whether she liked it or not.

"Knock yourself out Grandma. I don't want to know." Heather lied turning her eyes back to her show. Her grandmother snickered quickly running over to grab the glass from Heather hands.

"HEY!" Heather mumbled reaching for the glass, her mouth filled with an ice cube, "That's mine!"

"OH! Heather my dear, don't pretend you don't care what I have planned with that hunk of a boyfriend you have! I know you want to know! Just like I know it's going to eat away at you're very soul!" Grandmother laughed dancing the glass above Heather's head. Heather groaned at her Grandmother's words, and if she knew anything it was to never encourage the woman. Bothering people is what she lived for in her old age.

Heather reluctantly placed her hands in her lap and waited for her grandmother to finish. It was difficult for her while her grandmother danced the glass around her head making strange noises that Heather could only assume was that of a haunted glass. Then without warning her grandmother tossed the glass at her. Heather nearly missed it, and spilt some of the cold liquid on her pants.

"You're no fun! Take it back!" Her grandmother said, pouting and leaving the room in a dramatic pretend tantrum. Sighing out of irritation Heather went back to eating her ice. Her wonderful silence didn't last long because she could hear the familiar squeal of tires, and clucking chickens as they moved out of the way. The slam of a car door shortly followed.

"THERE YOU ARE!" A loud voice echoed through the room. Tony stood in the entrance to the living room, with messy hair, and an outfit she could tell was days old. She couldn't help but raise an eye-brow in wonder.

"There is who?" She asked, Tony seemed almost stunned by her question trying to figure out what she was talking about before he clued in that Heather was messing with him. Tony looked down to study his appearance fully understanding that she was hinting to his disheveled appearance.

"Ah, I need to talk to you." He said quickly running his hands through his hair as he tried to look at his appearance in the glass of one of the many frames on the walls.

"Hello there, love of my life! I missed you. How are you doing?" Heather mocked Tony as she turned her eyes away from him, and back to the television. Tony chucked kicking his shoes off his feet. Heather had almost instantly forgotten he was there she was so into her show, so when Tony bounced on the couch and pulled her into his grasp she squealed in surprise.

"Hello there, love of my life! I missed you. How are you doing?" He laughed trying to shower her with kisses. Heather was far from impressed by his antics and attempted to push herself away from him. She failed and was forced to remain in his arms.

"How was that?" he asked looking down at her. She lay limply in his arms after giving up her escape. She would never manage it, and even if she did Tony would chase after her. She would end up in a worse predicament then she was before.

"Hew mell." She said, her face pressed into his chest, her cheek resting up against his reactor. He tried not to think about the lines that slowly crept into his skin, just like he tried not to think about all of the elements that had failed him in the past couple of weeks.

"Wait what?" He asked released Heather from his hold. She quickly used her arms to push her face away from him, but to his surprise she didn't pull away, she just adjusted herself so she could see the television before lying back down.

"You smell. Bad." She said simply, Tony chuckled knowing that she was probably right. He hadn't showered in a few days, and he was so excited with his new epiphany that he didn't even think of cleaning himself up, he just ran over to tell Heather.

"Sorry about that!" He chuckled moving a lose piece of hair back into place. His movement caught Heather's attention and he took the opportunity to tell her why he had showed up unannounced and unshowered.

"I had an idea." He said, but before he continued Heather grunted in disapproval. The last time Tony had an amazing idea, she ended up spending days working on a pump for water that brought her more attention than she wanted.

"Do you remember years ago when my father held an EXPO?" Heather nodded her head, she didn't know where Tony was going with this but she was sure she wasn't going to like it. Tony as much as she loved him, sometimes went overboard.

"Well, I was thinking of doing just that." He said, waiting for Heather to respond. Her brain stirred with this new found information, when it finally clicked she pushed her self away from Tony to look at him her eyebrows raised.

"You're not telling me everything." She said, the sudden burning fear that she was catching on to him ruptured across his chest, and she smiled awkwardly.

"I want it to last a year." He blurted, a sudden flair of anger passed Heather's face and for a split second he thought that she was going to give him a verbal lashing. A yearlong Expo would defiantly put stress on their relationship, especially if Heather would be living with him for the first time. The expo would mean he would be around even a lot less than before.

"I think you really need to think about this." She said almost harshly. Tony could only nod his head; he had already made up his mind. He was going to do this, and the only thing that bothered him was the burning feeling in his chest that Heather knew there was something more that he wasn't telling her.

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	18. Chapter 18

**Phew! Summer vacation! Four months of freedom, so now maybe I can update more!**

**Needs to be BEATED!**

**Thank you, 9th and hennepin, , hayleytylers, kikikiki, You cant rush science, ren-hatake, and MissCaityGrace for the lovely reviews.**

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Heather was not impressed when she had discovered that Tony had gone through with his idea of the EXPO. She had been even more unimpressed with how she discovered it.

She had discovered Tony's plans late one night when she was curled up in bed flipping through a magazine and watching the late night news. The news anchors had excitedly announced the yearlong EXPO plans, and her apparent involvement with it. An involvement she made it very clear to Tony she wasn't partaking in.

Heather had noticed in the past couple weeks that Tony was in fact changing at a very rapid pace. He had started to throw more parties, often inviting her just as they started it, she had hoped that the reasoning behind this was in fact the excitement of his birthday that was approaching in a few months.

She had also noticed that Tony had begun to buy her more and more things than before, often not caring about her distress of not wanting the variety of objects he was showering her with. This was because the ensemble of gifts made her feel like their relationship was one sided; she couldn't afford to buy him much. So when he showered her with objects she felt like a horrible girlfriend.

After not seeing Tony for a few days, he had sent her a text message to pack her things, and drive to his house. He was coming come from a long trip and wanted her home when he drove in. He had also mentioned that one of the mufflers on one of his bikes was not working right, and he wanted her to take a look at it before he got home.

She had argued with him that she didn't want to fix his bikes after spending the day working on a bike order. She would have followed through with her argument too, if Tony hadn't joked about asking a more talented mechanic then herself. She had flat out texted him that he was an ass hole, and that he wouldn't even recognize the bike when he got home.

She was a little annoyed when she pulled into the garage and parked her bike. Pulling off her helmet and tossing her leather jacket onto one of the many tables in the garage she set off to find the broken bike Tony was talking about.

He had refused to tell her what bike was broken and preceded to text her smile icons every time she asked him which one. Even after, she had threatened to withhold sex from him.

Rubbing her hands on her pants she sighed looking at the neatly parked bikes, she ignored JARVIS's greeting and headed over to the bike closest to her. She knew if she asked JARVIS which bike it was, he wouldn't tell her simply because when Tony played a game, he made sure that as many people as possible were in on the joke.

She quickly checked the first couple of bikes, and felt the irritation flare up in her chest when she found there was nothing wrong with them. It wasn't until she reached the fourth bike that she found anything.

The fourth bike which was painted a dark blue, had a small white string hanging out the back of the muffler. This had struck Heather as odd because the string was the string she used to hold her roasts together. Unimpressed she pulled the string out, only to discover it was much longer then she had anticipated.

As she continued to pull the string she could feel her annoyance of Tony's actions flaring in her chest. He had done this on purpose! With a jerk of her hands, she dislodged a tag that was covered in a thick piece of plastic.

It looked as if it were a tag that someone would tie to a bag at the airport, and as she flipped it over to study it, her saliva got caught in her throat. In side of the plastic covered tag were the words messily scrawled in Tony's own hand writing 'marry me?' and an engagement ring.

The idea of Tony wanting to marry her made the tears well up in her eyes. She had always figured that she was not 'marriage material' and that though Tony was a great thing that she had in her life at the moment that he wouldn't stay around forever.

The ring was simple, a small gold band with a small string of diamonds. The diamond band curved slightly, which allowed a second part to the ring to sit snugly against it. The second ring would be the wedding ring, she would have to wear both the wedding and engagement ring to make the set complete. She could also tell that the rings were an older pair, and they were perhaps his mother's wedding set. She didn't know, and she didn't care because regardless of where he got the rings, it was her he wanted to marry.

Heather slipped the ring on her finger; the ring was a little too big for her finger but she figured she could always have it resized, but that didn't matter to her. With the collection of tears in her eyes, she picked up her phone and texted Tony with a smile 'yes' and waited for his response.

His response came quickly, and she couldn't help but laugh because this meant he had been waiting for her response. His response was simply a dorky picture of him expressing his excitement, and the words 'be home soon, wifey.'

To which Heather couldn't help respond, 'not yet!'

* * *

Tony could barely contain his excitement as he made his way home because trying to pick out the ring had been disastrous. He could not find a ring he liked, so he had settled with the rings his grandmother had given his mother. His mother wore them on more than one occasion, but his mother was not fond of rings on her fingers, and often just wore a simple gold band.

He figured if Heather didn't like the set, that they could buy another. But something told him that she wouldn't have cared, as long as she had something. It had taken him days to figure out how to propose to Heather, and he knew that she would have loved something that only they experienced. This meant no public proposals, and he knew her well enough that she wouldn't want him to propose in front of her family (because that was hardly romantic).

The more he thought about it, the more he worried about her answer. So he figured if he asked her, when he wasn't around that it would be best. Besides, Tony had a more sinister reason behind asking her to marry him. If he was going to die, he wanted her around him for as much time as possible, and he wanted all of his money to go to her and her family.

Usually a long distance relative would try to claim his money, but he didn't want them having it. All of his family was already rich, and her family could use the money a lot more than anyone he knew.

He knew her family struggled with money, and they had never once asked him for anything. They always included him with things, and much like a normal family they never expected anything from him. When it was his time, he wanted them to have everything.

This didn't mean that he was giving up on the search for a replacement element in his reactor, it just meant that if something were to happen, and he couldn't figure it out. Then his loved ones were taken care of.

The ride home was painful for him, and as much as he tried to contain his excitement he couldn't. Upon his arrival home, he had discovered that Heather had started cooking a massive dinner in order to distract herself.

Sadly her dinner quickly lay forgotten because as soon as Tony laid eyes on her, he had to have her. Tony had pouted when Heather wouldn't let him eat the food, he didn't care that they had been sitting in the kitchen for a few hours because he was sure the food was still good. He would have possibly still eaten it if she didn't offer to make him something else to eat, and he could never pass up fresh food from Heather.

They tried to take the next few days slow, but the closer to Friday they came, the less time they had to spend together. Heather had to go back home to take care of Steve.

During this time the couple tried to avoid all public areas because they knew the media was spinning with the news of the EXPO and Tony's parties. They didn't want any news on their engagement yet. They both knew it wouldn't take long for the tabloids to figure it out and when they did, everything to what Heather's ring looked like and what she was going to wear would be printed across the cover of anything that would sell.

But when Friday rolled around Heather slowly packed up her makeup, shoving it into her small back pack tied to the back of her motorcycle. Tony cringed when he thought of sitting behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist as they drove so he softly told her he would take the car. He didn't want the world to see him sitting in the 'bitch seat' or that's at least what Heather called it.

Tony slowly fell behind Heather, and pulled into her driveway almost 15minutes after she arrived. Unlike usual he didn't pull into the driveway like a maniac, regardless of how excited he was at the moment. The chickens still scattered when they saw his car coming, still expecting his normal actions.

What Tony didn't expect was the commotion that was going on inside the house, and when he stepped inside the living room he stepped in confused and in the middle of Steve throwing a very loud tantrum.

Heather was trying to calm him down, but it seemed that all attempts were futile. There was a sudden loud crack when Heather got to close to one of Steve's fists, he hit her in the side of the face so hard that she fell to the ground clutching the side of her jaw with her hand, that was topped with a new sparkling ring.

Tony for a split second lost all train of thought and bellowed out a large masculine voice that startled everyone in the room. Including Steve who had never heard such a tone of voice taken with him. For a split second Tony almost thought of reaching across the room and shaking the boy before he gritted his teeth together and hissed at Steve to go to his room while simultaneously pointing up the stairs.

Steve terrified of what would happen next quickly ran up the stairs, and to make sure everyone still knew of his anger, slammed his bedroom door behind him and threw something at the wall.

Tony didn't move until an awkward silence hung over the house and the first thing he did was help Heather off the ground before checking her face. A small trail of blood ran down the corner of her lip to her chin but other than that she looked okay.

She quickly told him she was fine before pushing past him and her family members to a small bathroom on the main floor. The bathroom was tiny, and the walls were covered in a weird floral pattern. The bathroom only had a toilet and a sink but it served its purpose with such a large family.

Tony always called it the pocket sized bathroom, which earned odd looks from Heather but to Tony it was pocket sized. All of the closets in his house were bigger than her bathroom.

Silently Tony followed behind Heather, pushing open the small bathroom door after she softly closed it. He knew this was her attempt to be alone, but he wanted to make sure she was more than physically okay.

Heather was sitting on the toilet seat with a tissue being held to her lip. Her eyes were rimmed slightly red and Tony knew she was close to crying. He didn't think she would actually full outcry, but she was close.

"Hey." He said softly, he felt stupid saying such a thing to her but when she responded with a soft similar greeting before turning away from him to run her free hand under her eyes smudging her makeup he knew somehow it was oddly appropriate

A deep sigh came from Heather's lips when Tony crouched down in front of her. He had to use her legs for support, and they were both now oddly crushed together in the bathroom. Tony grabbed her hand and pulled it away from Heather's face to make sure that her mouth was okay. Upon a better inspection he found that the cut wasn't as big as he initially thought, and that there was no need to take her to a hospital.

"Steve freaked when he saw the ring." Heather softly said tilting her face as she studied Tony's concerned face. A grunt of confusion escaped Tony's chest as he tried to regestar what Heater was saying. He had never seen Steve freak out, and he couldn't figure out why Steve would freak out about the ring.

"He thinks that you are going to take me away and he'll never see us again." She said softly, the smile on her face made the situation a little ridiculous. He knew the smile was totally unconscious on her part, and the smile was an expression of how much she loved him but it didn't stop him from chuckling.

"I couldn't stay away even if I tried." He chuckled rubbing her thighs in a loving manner. He could feel his back getting sore in the position he was in, and the old heater digging into his back wasn't helping.

Heather chuckled when she pressed the bloody tissue back to her lips, tilting her head in the most innocent manner. "Then maybe you should go tell Steve that." She said her words slightly muffled.

"Maybe I will." Tony smiled kissing her for head before squeezing out of the bathroom to find Steve.

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**Please review. **


	19. Chapter 19

**This story is almost complete phew! This chapter needs to be BETAED.**

**Thank you, KSIJ , addy, SilentShadow of Mountain Clan, ren-hatake,Jr, kikikiki, and SoLongNotGoodnight for the amazing reviews.  
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Cranky had been the words to describe Heather this week. She had hardly been sleeping after being up long hours of the night, and couldn't get back to sleep because of reasons Tony simply thought were stupid. He wouldn't tell her that he thought these reasons were stupid because he feared Heather would release her wrath on him like he had never seen before. The idea of his fiancée shooting laser beams from her eyes terrified him, and although it was biologically impossible for Heather to do such a thing, he wouldn't put it past her to make something like that.

It also seemed that during Heathers lack of sleep, she had accumulated enough bad luck to last anyone a life time. Parts for her new project (That she refused to tell him about) weren't coming in. They shipping company claimed that they had delivered the items but Heather hadn't gotten them. After fighting with the company on the phone and winning the argument (Tony was very proud) she went to her room to discover that one of her many brothers had broken her mirror on her vanity.

Tony hadn't known her vanity was a big deal until she went off into a rampage. This fit was so bad that he had very carefully escaped from the house, he was happy he hadn't gotten caught because if Heather did see him sneaking away she might have castrated him. When she had calmed down enough Tony had brought her back to his place to show her his newest purchase for the house.

Set up neatly in the corner of his massive bathroom was an old vanity. He figured after her old was one broken an new antique vanity would make her feel better and that wasn't half of the reason why he placed such an old vanity in their bathroom. Tony was not a fan of old things, but for this vanity he made an exaptation. The vanity belonged to non-other than his mother, he had very fond memories of it as a child, where his mother spent hours in front of the thing gently applying makeup. Nothing would make him happier then to see Heather doing the same thing, and he knew that she would take care of it.

This small event seemed to make her extremely happy, but it was short lived a couple of days later when Heather was walking in the garage past one of his robots. She was still running on her lack of sleep and in her tired haze stopped infront of one of his robots that watched her curiously.

In her hands Heather held a lighter and with that lighter she used it to burn off a lose thread off her shirt. As soon as he saw her flick the lighter on he knew it was a bad idea, and cringed waiting for it to happen. The robot that stood beside Heather gently turned it head and released a massive amount of foam onto Heather who stood stunned a few minutes later.

Tony clenched his teeth together waiting for her to freak out, but when she tossed her lighter onto the ground and simply stated that she was done a look of confusion crossed his face.

"Done? What do you mean done?" Tony asked in a panic, done with him? Done with the house? Done with what? Tony started to panic even more when the thought of her being done with him crossed his mind, he couldn't lose her, and he couldn't lose her now.

"Just done, I'm going to get more blood tests, and birth control." She snapped passing him to walk up the stairs to get changed. Tony didn't know how badly she wanted to sleep until that moment, and all fairness Tony could never tell if she was sick if she were wearing makeup, unless she acted out of character.

Heather going to the doctor's to get blood testing done and birth control was normal. She like many other woman, were required to get blood testing done every time they got a new injection of their birth control.

It had taken Heather less than fifteen minutes to change her outfit, and when she came down she was swinging her old truck keys in her hand. Around her shoulder she held a makeup bag which she carried from house to house. He knew after her appointment that she was going to go home, and hopefully she would sleep for a massive amount of time.

"I'll see you later." He said softly kissing her in the corner of her mouth, she gladly accepted his kiss, with a stiff smile before fixing the button on his shirt that had come undone.

Heather then silently exited his garage heading towards the doctor's office. The sun was extremely bright and the sunglasses over her eyes were hardly helping her vision. She swore to herself when she flicked on her air to find that the only thing that poured through her vents was hot air and the smell of gasoline. She quickly flicked it off and cracked a window as she silently drove.

Her doctor was a young man, and the only reason why she went to him was because he was a 'friend of the family'. In all actuality her was a friend of her brothers who had barely skidded by in medical school. Her family quickly took up the opportunity to have a doctor who they trusted so much. Heather on the other hand would have preferred if they went somewhere else, but too lazy to change her doctor stayed where she was.

When she stepped into the cool office she quickly pulled off her glasses and sat them on top of her head. A look of annoyance crossed her face when she realized that a few people in the room staired at her, and that the woman behind the desk fidgeted in excitement when she walked in.

The young woman of about 23 was named Rebecca, and Heather (as well as everyone else) knew Rebecca and the married doctor were messing around. Rebecca a small, high pitched woman was extremely excitable, annoying, and nosy. By the end of the day Heather was sure the entire world would know what kind of birth-control she was on, and how long.

As Heather tried to contain her annoyance over the girl she silently chewed on the inside of her lip. As she signed in and tried to ignore the blabber coming from the girls mouth about whatever she was talking about (Heather had no interest in listening at all).

When she finished signing in she sat down on a small leather chair beside a woman who was trying very hard not to stare at Heather. Heather knew what was coming and before the woman could open her mouth to ask her if she was, who the woman thought she was Heather snapped, 'no'.

The woman who seemed flustered by her response then proceeded to fight with Heather on the topic but was quickly shot down when Heather said, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Thankfully the woman seemed to drop the topic, but still kept a close eye on Heather who tried to ignore the entire situation by flipping through an old magazine she already owned.

"Heather?" A young man asked stepping into the room. His hair was brown, short, and if anything he looked more like a bulldog then a man. Heather could picture him with grey hair, and drool hanging out of the side of his mouth. She tried to contain these thoughts, because these were usually things that slipped out of her mouth.

She tossed the magazine on the table in front of her, and she tried to ignore the woman beside her who was indeed gakwaking. Heather had no doubt in her mind that she had figured out that Heather had lied, and quickly slipped away before the woman could rampage about it.

"How are you doing?" He asked guiding her to a small office and closing the door behind them. Heather muttered out a soft fine before sitting on the odd medical bed with paper pulled down the middle. The man chuckled before pulling a clip board behind his back.

He continued to mutter on about things (which he always did), like how his wife was doing, his children, and anything else he thought that she would report back to her parents. Heather of course never did, because she honestly couldn't remember anything after she left, just the things she needed to do.

Her mind finally reeled back in when he started flipping through the tests of her blood testing. This was a common procedure before any more of her birth control was administered, and of course it was administered by needle which would leave Heather sore for days.

There was a sudden hiss from his mouth when his eyes read over something. Suddenly Heather's heart started to beat faster, the first thing that came to her mind was that something was wrong, and she instantly thought of cancer.

"What? Whats wrong?" She panicked gripping the side of the bed leaning forward. She suddenly felt nocuous, did she want to know? Or maybe something didn't look right on the tests and they would order new ones? Maybe then it would be proven to be a false negative? Yes, false negatives would be good.

"Well Heather, it seems that you're pregnant." He said quickly flipping the paper as if the news would make the situation any better. Heather could feel her face pale, she wasn't sure she could heard him correctly.

"What?" She asked her body swaying a bit.

"Yes, it appears that you are pregnant."

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She had held out the excessive amount of tears before she got to the car, where a few onlookers watcher her privately sob before pulling out of the parking lot with Soddy eyes. One man in particular watched from his office with a careful eye. His fingers slotted between the blinds that were pulled apart enough to all him a clear vision of Heather.

His bull dog face and doctors coat clearly gave him away, and with a frown on his face he walked away from his window to make a quick phone call. He frowned dialing the number he with big sloppy fingers, his heart was beating a mile a minute and he swallowed the saliva that had accumulated in his mouth.

"It's done, she's pregnant." He sputtered on the phone, he hated himself at that moment but he had no choice.

A soft laugh came from the other end of the phone, as Lucas pressed his cell phone closer to his ear. His plan was almost complete the only thing left was for Tony to find out, and a few small details.

"I don't understand what kind of sick plan you have going on, but you need help." The Bulldog doctor said with a scowl, he wanted to lash out on this man make him feel some sort of remorse but he knew with people like him, there was nothing he could do beyond stay as far away from him as possible.

"The only thing you need to know is that if you say anything, I'll tell your wife everything." The sneer on his face could be heard from the opposite side of the phone. The bulldog doctor frowned his heart pounding harshly in his chest.

In all actuality he had been completely faithful to his wife, he loved his wife dearly. He had never done anything in their long relationship that could risk the loss of his wife and children. But that didn't mean Jack could lie through his teeth about it. Who would know better than his best friend?

Even if the Doctor could explain, and convince his wife was truly going on it didn't change the fact that from that moment on his wife could possibly never trust him again. There would always be mistrust in their relationship, because honestly who would believe that Lucas wanted his sister to get pregnant?

"I understand." The doctor said, a grunt came from Lucas on the other end. A few seconds later he could hear a dial tone that signaled the end of their conversation, with a frown the man hung up his phone. He had regretted what he had done, and he could never forgive himself.

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Heather sat quietly on her parent's fount porch with her large sunglasses covering her eyes. She had checked her appearance before she had slipped out of the tuck and she knew she looked horrible. Her eyes were glassy, and they were rimmed red from crying.

She tiredly rested her head on her knuckles are she waited for something better to happen. The thought of being pregnant being terrified her, she didn't even know how far along she could be.

The sudden creaking noise from the end of the deck startled Heather from her thoughts, and she turned her head to see the commotion. Her eyes rested on her Grandmother who was carrying two cups. Heather watched as the older woman quietly settled down beside her on the porch swing.

"I thought you would need this." She said handing Heather a cup of hot water. Heather looked at the cup with her eyebrows scrunched in confusion, usually her Grandmother handed her hot coffee when she was upset but never water.

"Hot water?" Heather asked tilting the cup to examine the water with a critical eye. Grandmother chuckled raising her glass to her mouth and taking a small sip of her tea.

"A woman with child shouldn't be drinking caffeine." She said smugly watching Heather spit out and choke on her hot water. Grandmother started chuckling as Heather tried to compose herself.

"Ah, ha! SO you have figured it out!" Grandmother chuckled nudging Heather's side. Heather rubbed her throat harshly as she turned her attention fully on her Grandmother.

"How did you know? I just found out!" Heather sputtered, the smile on her Granmother's face grew bigger when she admitted to the discovery of her pregnancy.

"You have been eating Ice like a mad woman for a while now." She said poking Heather in the side of her hip, Heather flinched away from the contact being very ticklish in her sides.

"What does that mean?" Heather said, scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion, Grandmother chuckled a second time.

"When I was pregnant I ate ice twenty four seven." She said with a dreamy smile on her face, Heather suddenly could no longer control herself. She pulled her sunglasses off her face and placed it on her head, she then proceeded to run her fingers under her eyes trying to stop the oncoming tears.

"I don't know what to do!" Heather cried as she burst into tears, Heather buried her head into her Grandmother's awaiting arms. Her grandmother gently shushed Heather until she was cried out.

When Heather was done crying she pulled away from her grandmother quickly wiped the makeup from her face. Heather didn't get the chance to finish wiping the makeup from her face when her grandmother used her fingers to clear up Heather's face.

"Heather dear, I'm very happy for you and Tony but this is a conversation you need to have with him." Grandmother said firmly pushing the still on coming tears away from the side of Heather's face.

Heather simply nodded her head in agreement as she tried to keep her thoughts from clustering together. She didn't know if she could tell Tony yet, in fact she wasn't even sure if she was ready to have a child.

"Okay." Heather said softly, chewing the side of her lip.

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	20. Chapter 20

**Thank you SpuffyFanSinceYesterday, Countcresent, SilentShadow of Mountain Clan, Pein's Kid, ren-hatake, kikikiki , and kikikiki for the reviews. **

**Needs to be betaed. **

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Heather had assumed that her parents knew she was having sex with Tony, so the surprise pregnancy would have been met with a small amount of disappointment, but then again at her age maybe her parents would get excited.

What Heather didn't expect was the explosion of anger that came from her parents. There was very few times in her life that she felt small, and sitting on the couch while her Step-Father wore a path in the ground and her mother rubbed the bridge of her nose made her feel like she was sixteen and not a twenty something year old woman.

"I don't understand how this could have happened." Her step father sputtered stopping in the center of the floor to look at Heather. The look stung, it was worse than the time she had sprayed painted the local bridge and got caught. She couldn't help but cast her eyes down away from his, she felt so dirty sitting on the couch being scolded by her parents.

"What will we tell everyone at church?" Her mother cried, her step-father gave his wife a sorrowful look, he was stuck in the same position. A sudden boiling anger was starting to boil in Heather's stomach.

"You don't tell them anything, it's none of their business." Heather snapped watching a shock roll over her mother's face. The idea was too scandalous to handle, it was bad enough that Heather was getting married to a man who everyone talked about at the church. But now her daughter was knocked up by him.

"Heather the world doesn't work that way!" her Step-father boomed his face was starting to go red with anger, Heather disagreed. The church didn't need to know every single little thing that went on with their day, it was none of their business.

"It's none of their business what goes on here! Besides this has nothing to do with you! This is between Tony and I!" She yelled, her fingers gripped the side of the couch. She was starting to feel sick. She didn't want to be scolded anymore, and she knew there was nothing she could say to change her parents mind.

She didn't even know how they had found out. She had assumed that when she was talking to her Grandmother someone had overheard the conversation and told them. That was one reason why she hated her family, you could never keep anything a secret. If one family member knew, they all knew.

This also meant that being scolded by her parents was impossible to avoid. Heather had also found over the years her parents like to freak out about every single little thing. But this time she was sure it was something she would never hear the end of.

Heather's Step-father snorted when he heard Tony's name drawing everyone's attention to him. Heather could feel something building up in her stomach.

"What the hell does that mean?" she spat watching his face scrunch up into one of disgust.

"I've remained silent trough this whole Tony thing. I was hoping you would come around before you did something stupid. It seems it's too late now. Do you honestly think he will stick around when he finds out? If you were my daughter, you would have been out on your ass a long time ago." Heather's mother gasped when she heard what her husband had said, and Heather could feel her chest tighten. She watched the tears accumulate in her mother's eyes, and didn't even realize that she was crying herself until she felt a few tears fall onto her hands.

Her Step-father suddenly took in a deep breath of air, the realization of what he had said hit him. He ran his hand across his chest, his mouth was slightly ajar as he tried to think of something to say.

Suddenly Heather's mother stepped in, "I think maybe we should talk about this later." A nervous chuckle left her lips as her eyes darted between her daughter and husband.

"No its fine, I understand." Heather said standing up from the couch, both her mother and Step-father took a few steps back from her, allowing her the room she needed. They both expected an explosion of anger from her, but what they didn't expect was her to cross her arms, her eyes looking off into the corner of the room.

"My mother must have sounded great until you realized she came with baggage. I'll be out of your life in an few hours, then all of you can have the happy apple pie life you always wanted." Heather turned on her heel walking towards the stairs, she would grab the few things she needed. Everything else would be sent for by professional hands later.

"Heather wait, he didn't mean it like that!" Her mother said grabbing for her arm. Heather quickly ripped her arm away from her mother, her mouth in a deep frown.

"No. You're just as bad as him, for years I struggled with this idea that I wasn't a part of the family, and when he finally admits what he thinks, you defend him?" Heather snapped pointing to her Step-father, silence hung over the small room. Heather snorted one final time before walking away.

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A look of confusion crossed Tony's face when a call came from Heather's grandmother. She was a bit distraught, and quickly ended the conversation. The only thing he knew was he needed to show up to the house and quickly.

He had tried to remain calm when he pulled into the drive way. Jack was standing on the porch smoking a cigarette. Tony's eyes glanced down for a second so he could see the old stairs that led up to the porch, and in doing so he missed the small smirk that spread across Jack's face.

Jack took a final inhale before tossing the still lit cigarette over the banister of the deck. He quickly pushed himself off the wall and made his way towards the door where he blocked Tony from going inside.

There was an instant frown on Tony's face, and the two men both knew that there was going to be an angry exchange of words. Before Tony had a chance to tell Jack to 'get the hell out of his way', Jack spoke.

"I wouldn't go in there." Jack said watching Tony squeeze his hands into fists tightly. Tony was now sick of Jack's crap, much like Heather. It wasn't uncommon for Jack to hide in strange places and bombard them with his toxic words. Jack seemed to be the only one in the house with a problem now that he was the only one in the family who still tried to bother Heather.

"And why is that?" Tony angrily grinded his teeth, Heather would kill him if she caught him. As she once said, she loved his teeth and some people would kill to have teeth as nice as him.

"Because you are about to walk into a war zone, and I don't think it's fair if you walk into that totally clueless." A emotion crossed Jack's face, Tony had never seen before. It confused him, he had built up an idea in his head of Jack's persona, and this was not one of the ideas he had.

"Yeah, and what do I need to know?" Tony asked, he was still on guard. He didn't know what was going on, and the whole situation was totally surreal to him. Jack normally just verbally assaulted people not, talk to them.

Tony's inner thoughts were screaming at him that it was a trick. That he was not to be trusted, but at the same time he wanted to know. He was curious, and he was pulled to this new version of Jack he had never seen before.

"Look, I shouldn't be the one to tell you this, but its apparent no one in my family wants to." Jack paused, his mouth slightly ajar as he thought, "Heather's pregnant."

Tony felt the color drop from his face. He wasn't sure he had heard right but when Jack watched him carefully he knew Jack was completely serious. He was waiting for that familiar evil laugh to come from Jack so he knew it was a joke, but nothing came.

"That's not funny and I know funny!" Tony said watching yet another emotion cross Jack's face. Tony's world was sent spinning with a ton of different thoughts. Heather was carrying his child, the thought of a child didn't excite him. But the idea made him feel complete, but it also gave him another reason to find his cure.

He wanted this, even if months ago before he met Heather the idea of having a child was foreign to him. Hell, he was content with the idea of just marrying Heather but now he would have his own family. Tony could feel the smile crawl across his face, and at that moment Jack knew he had Tony.

"Heather told Mom and Dad that she was planning to abort, and nothing anyone could say will change her mind. She's getting ready to leave now, maybe you can change her mind, but please try not to mention it, Mom is really upset." Jack watched a the small light of happiness that flashed in Tony's eyes disappeared.

It almost seemed as if Tony was on autopilot, Jack knew his timing was perfect something had been happening in Tony's private life the past few months that he wasn't even telling Heather, and he had only seen the look once before. Tony was dying, it took Jack a while to figure it out and the only reason why he had noticed the signs was because he had seen the very same glances on his grandfather's face as a child.

Tony nodded his head and Jack moved out of his way. It was perfect, and he tried so hard not to laugh as Tony walked into the house, he knew he would barely grab a glance of his mother being comforted by his father in the kitchen. From there he was only a ticking time bomb, with impending death came rash decisions.

Tony slowly made his way upstairs stopping at the only open door in the hallway. His eyes jumped from his feet to inside the room where he watched a stone faced Heather sort through a couple things on her dresser top. A large crack still ran through her old vanity, and he suddenly thought back to the vanity he had set up in their bathroom.

He knew Heather's surprise pregnancy was both their faults, but her choice to abort was her own. He had thought that when he asked her to marry him, that they would become a team.

Tony's father may have been a poor father, but he was an amazing husband. He and his mother worked well together, they always made any life changing decisions together. They were also deeply in love with each other, and that's what Tony wanted more than anything.

Suddenly Heather stopped her eyes slowly looking up at him. She looked sad even desperate. It was not a look he was use to seeing on her face.

"I'm assuming there is no talking about this?" He asked watching a confused look cross her face, she slowly tried to figure out what was going on, her head so muffled with thoughts and when she finally figured it out her mouth twisted.

"I'm sorry." She said softly, she tried to hold back the tears. The look on Tony's face was none she had seen before, who knew Tony could be disappointed in someone?

"You know, if you go through with this, I'm not sticking around." Heather had never felt the amount of pain she did at that moment. She swallowed harshly; she could feel the tears building up in her eyes.

"I thought you loved me?" Heather asked watching a frown deepen on Tony's face.

"I thought I did to, but you can't make choices on your own and assume that everyone will go along with it because the choice you are going to make, isn't the one I want. I don't think I can stand by you if you make that choice." Tony held a look of complete seriousness.

"You ass hole." This seemed to be the end of the conversation because Heather walked away. Tony half expected her to listen to him, even get angry but not walk away in tears. A sigh left his lips as he sat down on Heather's unmade bed. Normally he would have chuckled at the thought of Heather's bed being unmade but today wasn't the day. Running his hands through his hair he thought about the mess they were in.

He understood how she got pregnant, but not how it was possible on her birth control. It also made him worry about the damages it could have possibly done to the fetus. Maybe it was better for them to abort now and try again later, if Tony had a later. Which he highly doubted, that is why he wanted the baby so badly because if he was gone Heather not only had the money, but a little piece of him.

The house seemed to an awkward silence hanging over it, like it always did. It didn't surprise him when he heard Heather's truck start up, it was typical of her to run away from her problems. It was her way of getting a clear head, and until then he was going to wait for her. He was hoping she would make the right choice.

Tony stood in her room for about twenty minutes as he accumulated himself, and when he was done he made his way down stairs. Her parents gave him a look of disbelief and he knew he was in for a talking to. Heather's mother's eyes diverted to a chair which clearly meant he had no choice but to sit down. He figured that getting the lecture over with was best, but he didn't expect for a door to open and Lucas to run in.

"You bastard!" Lucas yelled, and for a split second Tony thought Lucas was going to attack him. Suddenly Lucas grabbed for Jack and started to throw punches. The struggle continued until Heather's father could get the two boys apart, no one had the chance to question Lucas's actions before he started yelling again.

"You've gone too far! I told you this was a line never to be crossed and you crossed it! What kind of lunatic secretly tries to get his sister knocked up!" There was a small gasp from Miss. Bethune and a sudden wave of confusion crossed everyone in the room.

"Lucas what are you talking about?" She screeched, not believing what she was hearing.

"This ass hole black mailed the doctor into giving Heather an injection of saline instead of her birth control so she would get pregnant. She was never on birth control! Then when he found out he had succeeded he told Tony, Heather was going to abort!" Luca's hands were clenched, and his face was read. Everyone in the room seemed to be at a complete loss, they couldn't understand why someone would do something so devious to their own family.

"Jack is this true?" Miss. Bethune asked her eyes brimming with tears, out of everyone in the room she would be the last one to believe it. A soft chuckle passed Jack's lips, and at that moment Tony knew he had been tricked.

"What the hell is wrong with you boy!" boomed, Jack didn't see the point in explaining himself any more, instead he just laughed. He had one, he had accomplished what he wanted and the rest of the family had failed to see that.

"When Heather comes back, you are going to tell her what you did, and if she decides she wants to press charges you better bet your ass I'll pay for it." A look of anger crossed Jack's face when his father spoke, his plan had almost been complete but it was soiled by his brother.

"You mean if she comes back!" Lucas snapped his eyes diverting to Tony, who was still in such a state of horror that he hadn't responded. "The whole plan was to get Heather to leave, and never come back." Tony could feel something twist in his stomach, he had never thought of Heather never coming back to him.

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Heather had come down the stairs in a fit of tears and in her panic she did one thing, she grabbed her purse and her mail. She had no idea why she would do such a thing but as she quickly moved onto the front porch the idea of grabbing her mail made sense.

She found herself in her car in a few split seconds, and sat crying with the letters in hand. She blamed herself for not knowing better, she should have known it would have ended up this way, but the marriage proposal threw her off. She tossed the letters on the passenger seat and rubbed as much of the tears away from her face as she could. She couldn't drive if she couldn't see, it was at this moment that Heather looked over to the letters. A yellow envelope caught her eye.

She picked it up curious and ripped the back open with difficulty. Then with one swift movement pulled the paper out of the envelope and started to read, an instant look of confusion crossed her face. She couldn't believe her eyes, and with nowhere else to go, she took off in the direction towards the return address on her letter.

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**Please review. **


	21. Chapter 21

**It took me a while to write this, not only did I break my keyboard (still broken), but I couldn't figure out what to write...so excuse my horrible story. Needs to be Beated.**

**Thank you, lalala777, , Aya, AngelicScream, SilentShadow of Mountain Clan ,and kikikiki for the reviews.**

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Heather had done many things in her life that she was not necessarily proud of, a lot of these things were spur of the moment or sheer stupidly. Like the time she spray painted the local bridge, she had been stupid and was caught right in the middle of spray painting a giant heart on the side of the cement walls.

She was lucky that it was her parents who caught her and not the police and still to this day a half-finished heart remained on the side of this bridge, the bridge was no longer in use.

After her granddaughter went missing, Grandmother Bethune spent large amounts of time by that bridge. She had even finished the half heart in hopes that somehow it would bring her precious granddaughter back.

There was a sick feeling she felt towards her grandson who had successfully ruined their family. Heather may have not been her blood granddaughter but she loved her like one from the moment she saw her. She never had any girls of her own, and neither did her son. Heather was the daughter she never had.

She was well aware of how Heather's older brothers treated her, and no matter how many times she had intervened it didn't seem to make a difference. The boys would treat Heather the same when no one was looking, and they would be stupid to get caught by their grandmother.

She was there every single time Heather needed her, and it hurt that Heather had not come to her, and instead chose to run away. Not even so much as a call was made to tell her that she was safe.

Even though Heather was her only granddaughter, and she held massive amounts of love for her. She would be the first to admit that Heather had a poor choice in men and she would always blame her father and her son for that.

In her high school years, Heather had chosen to date men who treated her like meat. So when Tony came round, she was more than happy that someone had taken interest in her that didn't see her as an accessory. She knew these feelings Tony had where new for him, and that their relationship wasn't perfect but it was still a great one.

A look of sadness passed Grandmother's face when she found the engagement band neatly placed on the banister of the deck, and to ensure that her granddaughter and Tony had a chance, pocketed them so Tony wouldn't see. She knew Tony was a smart man and that he wouldn't have tried to find her if he had seen the ring.

No one seemed to notice the old woman sneaking around the house, doing a number of things. First snooping through the barn only to discover Heather had been working on a new bike that she had intended to give Tony for his birthday. The sight had made her eyes water, because Heather had once firmly told him he would never get any of her bikes. She then snooped through all the mail Heather still accumulated even though she wasn't there.

It took the woman months to find anything, but when she did it came through the mail. At first it seemed like nothing, but when she had noticed the numerous stamps on the front saying it had been lost in delivery she knew it was important.

Her fingers shook as she opened the letter, and as soon as she discovered what was inside she grabbed her wallet and driving glasses. She failed to tell anyone where she was going, her old mind now on a mission and that mission was to knock some sense into her Granddaughter.

She had been to Canada before; she in fact grew up in Canada only moving to the states for a short period of time with her husband. They divorced after the birth of her son, where she then moved back to Canada until her now ex-husband died and gave the house to his only son.

The house was in total disarray when they first moved, and after a lot of her hard work it was a home. But even if that house was their home, it was nothing compared to the feeling of being back in Canada. There was a certain air to the country, and even something about its people.

She had gotten lost for the first time in years not use to the new changes in Toronto but as soon as she found her way she slowly drove the car to the hospital. She parked in two parking spots not caring who would get angry. She dared someone to say something to her, because the rage that was bubbling in her body would be far greater than anything someone could throw at her.

She had ignored the nurse's desk and marched up to the fifth floor in the hospital passing many curious on lookers. It didn't take a genius to notice the old woman was on a mission, and it was a mission that no one wanted to get in the way of.

She finally found the room she was looking for, walking in uncaring about who was in side. She could have been wrong in assuming that this is where Heather would be but when she stepped into the room to see her Granddaughter sitting on the opposite side of a sleeping form her hair cut extremely short she almost lost her temper.

A woman who was sitting closer to the door stood up to shoo her out of the room when she snapped. "Sit down you old hag! You come here!" she demanded pointing to the ground in front of her. The woman Heather had come to known as Lisa sat down slowly a look of fear etched on her face. She looked to Heather for guidance; Heather's face was twisted in anger. She was surprised to see her grandmother there, but when she quickly figured out the reasons behind her appearance she felt the anger bubble.

Pushing herself out of the chair she moved around the very small room, exposing to her grandmother the very large stomach she carried on her. Heather watched as her grandmother's face instantly softened. If she wasn't about to give her granddaughter a tongue lashing she would have praised her.

Not only because pregnancy looked good on her, but because the sight had proved her right. Heather had chosen to keep the baby, and proved that her grandson was a liar. It was among great speculation that she had chosen to abort, but she had held onto the belief that her precious granddaughter wouldn't.

Heather pushed passed her Grandmother, her stomach taking up so much room that she couldn't slip by. A silence hung over the two as Heather led her to a small room with four chairs. Shutting the door firmly behind them, as soon as they were cut off from the rest of the hospital Grandmother's had went directly to Heather's stomach. She tried to feel for some kind of movement but could only feel the shape of some kind of infant body part.

For an instant she almost forgot why she was there. Clearing her throat the older woman pointed to a chair commanding Heather to sit down. Although Heather was angry about her appearance she didn't dare challenge her. Sitting down the small chair Heather grunted, the weight off her feet.

"You and I both know why I'm here." She said sitting down beside Heather carefully, her small hands reached out for Heather's. A look of distress crossed Heather's face as she experienced the comfort from her grandmother. Heather didn't know why she would show such kindness towards her, when her family had basically shunned her only months prior.

The old woman gently patted her hand sighing as she chose her next words carefully. All anger she had walking up to the room had reduced to a small controllable simmer.

"I'm not going back." Heather said firmly running her hand through her hair, the sight of Heather's short hair made her sad even if she thought the short locks looked good on her. Tony would be surprised; she actually thought he might weep over the sight.

"We need to talk about what happened." She said softly watching the deep frown on Heather's face. Heather pulled her hand away from her grandmother, placing it under her large stomach. The older woman observed as small movements occurred in her stomach and knew the child was kicking.

"There is nothing to talk about." Heather said trying to calm down the child on the inside.

"There is a lot to talk about, and I think you really need to hear it." a huff came from Heather's lips she knew she had no choice but to listen but figured that if she did then she wouldn't have to later. She would listen to her grandmother then she would never have to see her again.

"Your brother black mailed the doctor into giving you saline injections instead of the birth control." Heather seemed shocked for a second, it had explained to her why she had gotten pregnant and she didn't need to be explained why her brother did it.

Her Grandmother then went on to explain his plan and how he had tried to catch Tony cheating on her with her Ex-boyfriends current girlfriend and how he had planned instead to get her pregnant, and dumped by Tony. Only then would he have felt that he had destroyed Heather's life. He didn't consider that Tony would want the child, and that had foiled his plan. Her brother was currently being sued by the doctor who had been brave enough to charge him, since Heather was not around.

When Grandmother was finished her story, Heather nodded her head in acceptance before standing up to leave the room. The bubbling of anger returned to the old woman's chest and she quickly followed after Heather.

"Is that it? You're just going to walk away? Return to the arms of the bastard who left you and your mother hanging dry?" a few nurses stopped in the hallway to watch the scene unfold, Heather had turned around to look at her grandmother with a deep frown.

"It's better than the family who didn't want me, and the boyfriend who didn't care about me." Heather spat watching her Grandmother's face turn red, the silence in the halls was so thick that they could hear the soft hum of machines.

"Your family loves you Heather. I love you, we may not be perfect but we dam well try. But if you want to throw away the best man who ever cared about you then you're a fool. That man Heather loves you so much! He hasn't stopped looking for you since you left." The words didn't seem to affect Heather and the old woman could only get angrier.

"Dam it Heather, How can you forgive your father and not Tony!" She snapped, Heather didn't respond but simply walked back into the room she was in before. She had many things running through her mind, and the emotions attached weren't helping. She shut the door behind her as she stepped into the room ignoring Lisa who was completely confused.

Silently Heather sat back down in her chair resting her hands on the side of the bed, her head completely in the clouds. She was quickly drawn out of her thoughts when a weak hand grabbed her's, her eyes quickly darted to see the source. A man, who was withered and sick, shook his head softly.

"Don't make the same mistakes as me." He rasped pointing at her, his hand shaking. Heather could only nod her head swallowing harshly as she took in his words.

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The smell of booze seemed strong in the house, and no matter how hard Tony seemed to try he couldn't get the smell out. He of course had more than a couple drinks a night but unlike a few months ago he was sober during the day, and only started drinking at night.

This was usually the time he started to think about Heather, shifting in his seat he ignored the cell phone that went off. The sound had become accustom to him over the past couple months since Steve liked to call the only number he knew on speed dial and ask if he had found Heather yet.

He had learned just to ignore all calls because he didn't want to explain to anyone he hadn't found Heather. She was clever and had hidden herself well; he had no idea where she could be. Taking a large swallow of rum, he watched the phone shut its self-off as it finished its final ring.

The room was filled with silence for a few seconds before the obnoxious ringing started again; flipping the phone open he muttered an unpleasant greeting as he swallowed another mouth full of his drink.

"Get down here and talk some sense into the girl!" an old woman snapped on the other end of the phone. His mind blank with who was calling him, he switched his phone to his other ear.

"I'm sorry who?" he asked placing the bottle to his lips again. An angry grunt came from the other end of the phone and he listened intently as the women told him how much of an idiot he was.

"Heather of course you idiot!" she snapped, Tony choked on the rum he had swallowed and with one hand hit his chest to dislodge the culprit that managed to make his eyes water.

His mind could only think of one thing and the words blurted out of his mouth a lot faster than he could think of them. "Where is she?"

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The trip to Toronto seemed long, but only after his head started to pound. He knew it was stupid to fly in his suit under the influence but he didn't think about it until he had crossed the border. By the time he reached Canada he was completely sober and had no idea what he was going to say. He only knew where he was going and who he was going to see.

People stood in awe as he landed on the roof of the hospital and they would have been flabbergasted to watch his suit fold down into a suitcase. Although the suit he was wearing was an older prototype it was the only one that turned into a suitcase. He had never thought he would need one to fold so small since he and Pepper had started to redesign the building.

It was a thought that had occurred to him one night in his drunken state and he thought it was a beyond brilliant plan, it meant he could avoid home as much as possible and since Heather was gone avoiding anything that had to do with her sometimes eased his troubled mind. But even though things like the Vanko incident he couldn't keep her completely off his mind.

He was thankful that his arms were so strong because when he picked up the suit it was heavy enough for him to grunt in annoyance, now at the location of Heather he walked down into the hospital ignoring the blabber of some nursing staff who were angry that Tony had used the roof for his own personal landing spot.

He had to quickly assure them that he would donate money to the hospital later; when they heard they would get new funding they backed off but continued to glare at him. He then proceeded to take the elevator to the floor Heather was on.

He was met with odd looks as he slowly read each door number before stopping at the number he was looking for. Steadying himself before stepping he ran his hand through his hair. The room was small and it had an eerie silence to it, an older thin man slept in the bed. He was completely bald and that included his eyebrows. It was obvious that he was undergoing chemo, and it was obvious that the man was Heather's father.

There was no way this man could deny that Heather was his daughter, and if he had hair he was sure it would match Heather's. There was a deep inhaling of breath from the other side of the room, and only then did he notice a woman sleeping on a makeshift bed. For a moment he didn't recognize who she was, until he had realised it was his precious Heather very pregnant and with short hair.

He couldn't help himself; it was almost as if she was calling him. He silently made his way across the room sitting on a small corner of the couch, his calloused hand reaching for her rounded stomach. He had waited so long to feel the swell of her stomach and now that he was running his thumb against it his eyes watered. The feeling was even more amazing than what he had anticipated. There was a sudden movement from under his hand and he could no longer stop the few tears from escaping.

A sharpe pain irradiated from his jaw and he found himself not only dazed but bleeding. "You fucking creep!" Heather snapped struggling to get up off the couch as he nursed the split lip she skillfully gave him.

"I can't believe you! The first thing you do when you show up out of the blue is feel me up? Not even so much as a hello? You disgusting pig!" she snapped, he had caught her movement just in time, she had raised her hand to hit him again but he stopped it grabbing her arm. Now even angrier then she was before she reached to smack him again and he skillfully blocked it.

"Okay, you and I both know I deserved that!" he said trying to calm her down, he wanted to talk to her, he wanted to make everything right and if that meant her breaking his nose then he would let it happen.

"You deserve a kick in the..."

"I came here to talk to you, not fight." He said softly, Heather snorted pulling her hands away from him with a tug. He waited for her to throw another punch but when she crossed her arms he relaxed.

"Well then I'm not going to listen or give you any chance to explain yourself, because you Tony Stark are an egotistical jerk!" she snapped, he had realised she was completely serious because like he didn't give her a chance to explains herself. She was trying to get up and storm out of the room. The sight warmed his heart, Heather couldn't get off the couch and for the first time in her life she couldn't run away from her problems.

"Please, be a better person then me and hear me out." he said, Heather had given up and glared at him. She was clearly panting and tried from her attempted escape. Having no choice but to listen she crossed her arms and looked away.

If she wanted him to beg, then he was going to beg. Getting down on his knees he crawled over to Heather grabbing her knees in attempt to draw her attention to him. She was pretending to ignore him and that was more than enough for him.

"You have no idea how sorry I am, how long I looked for you, and how much I hate myself." His small speech had begun to catch Heather's attention and she watched as he admitted so many things, but the most shocking if all was that he was at dying before she had left, and she was the only thing that was barely holding him together. He had failed to notice the small river of tears that had fallen down her face until a few of them fell onto his hands. She was trying very hard to try and keep it together but her hormones weren't allowing her.

"You were supposed to be my best friend, my everything and you weren't there to protect me when I needed you most. You wouldn't even listen to me!" she wept covering her face with her hands, the sight broke his heart. She was right, it was his job to protect her and he had been so angry at the time he actually casted her out when she needed him most.

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	22. Chapter 22

**This is the final chapter to this story. Thank you Beloved Daughter, Trunksymia, kikikiki, lalala777, Countcresent, C-Lyn, and AngelicScream for the reviews. ALSO thank you to everyone else who Favorited etc through out this whole process.**

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Tony had forced Heather out of the hospital after her father's wife Lisa had told him that she hadn't left in a few weeks. There was even more of an annoyance that crossed his face when he saw where Heather was staying. It was some sort of woman's shelter; he was positive that even Lisa had no idea where Heather was staying. He was under the impression that Lisa would have given her a place to stay at wherever they lived.

He packed up what little she had at the woman's shelter and took her to the only Hotel he ever stayed at in Toronto. She seemed less than thrilled that he was doing these things, but was too tired to fight him. She was running on less than four hours of sleep because the baby never seemed to stop moving.

Grabbing her awkwardly packed bags, Tony guided them towards their room. It took them longer then he would have expected because Heather wasn't very skillful at waddling towards her destinations. He had made sure to fall behind her so he could see every angle of her new walk.

The room he rented was massive, and he had waited for Heather to say something about the grandness of the room but she simply waddled towards the bedroom. He couldn't help but laugh, he figured she had to be hungry so he picked up the phone and ordered a large meal.

When he was finished he headed towards the bedroom. Heather had passed out in the bed with her shoes still on, she was so large that she couldn't get them off her swollen feet. With a soft chuckle he pulled the shoes off her feet and tossed them on the floor. He then proceeded to crawl onto the bed with her, wrapping his arm around her.

"You're sleeping on the couch." she said softly, shifting her body to get more comfortable on the bed. He ignored her pulling himself closer to her, his face buried in the back of her neck inhaling her sent. He never imagined he would miss her this much.

"Nope. I'm sleeping right here next to my wife." he said lamely, there was a snort from Heather.

"In this country you need my signature to be your wife." she snapped, Tony chuckled running his hand over her belly. She was still angry with him, but he was sure at this moment they were okay, and somewhere on the road to mending their relationship. It was at this moment he had realized he knew nothing about her pregnancy.

"When are you due?" he asked, he was now more awake than ever and he sat up slightly to study her face. A look of annoyance crossed her face, and she at that moment seemed to give up on sleeping.

"I was due last week." she muttered annoyed, he could hardly believe what she was saying. It was strange for him that she was that overdue, and the thought that he almost missed the birth of his child upset him. Even though his father was not the best, he was still there with his mother when she had him.

"Boy or girl?" he asked, a sigh of frustration left her lips and she sat up swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She was quick to get up and walk to the adjoined room, for a moment he thought she wasn't going to answer when she turned the taps on to the bath tub, returning to mutter she didn't know.

"What do you mean you don't know?" he asked standing up, a look of confusion crossed her face as she watched him unbutton his shirt. He had decided he was going to join Heather in the bathroom.

"Their legs are crossed so they can't get a good enough picture...What are you doing?" she asked, a hard look crossed her face. She knew what he was up to and Tony knew that, she was simply giving him opportunity to change his mind. This could very well possibly save his life.

"Taking a bath with my wife." he said tossing his shirt onto the floor, he had begun to unbutton his belt his underwear peeking out beyond the rim of his pants. Heather's face went red and for a moment he thought she was going to fight with him. He didn't expect her to waddle away into the bathroom. A short chuckle passed his lips as he dropped all of his clothing on the ground and followed after Heather.

Heather had gotten herself stuck; she had managed to get most of her clothing off but struggled with her underwear and socks. The sight made him love her even more as she quickly got frustrated and gave up. Her eyes locking with his for help.

Bending down he gently removed her socks from her swollen feet, and her underwear. When he was finished he couldn't help but kiss her scowling lips before guiding her towards the large tub that was still slowly filling up.

He then made her rest against him so he could wrap his arms around her. It was a difficult task for him to do but he had figured out how to do it the right way only moments before on the bed. They both waited in silence for the tub to finish filling up, and when it was completely full Heather leaned forward and turned it off.

"You look amazing; I think I'll have to keep you this way!" he murmured in her ear, she jerked her head away from his mouth not liking the feeling of his breath tickling her ear. She took the opportunity to pull away from him and turn around. She ignored the confused look on his face, and leaned against the side of the tub.

"What now?" she asked her mouth clearly in a frown. He had never seen Heather so serious in his life, and he was sure she had been thinking about this since they had their long discussion at the hospital.

Tony swallowed, his mind thinking of what was next. Did they continue on from where they left off, or didn't continue at all? The thought of her not being with him scared him. He didn't want to be alone. He thought for a few moments before he answered.

"Move in with me, and we can try to be a family. But if it doesn't work I'll buy you and the baby a house, any house as long as the two of you are happy. But I want to at least try, because if I don't then I will be alone forever, and I don't want to be alone." he hated the words that came out of his mouth, Tony Stark was not the kind of man who said these things, even if he thought them.

A soft smile spread across Heather's face as she leaned forward kissing him in the corner of his mouth. "I don't want to be alone either." she said wrapping her arms around his neck, her stomach roughly pressed into his.

She pulled away from him giving him a kiss. "We have to get out of this tub." she said breaking the silence.

"Why, it's nice in here and I get to hold my naked Wife." he chuckled.

"I couldn't help myself, but I peed in the tub and now I'm hungry." she laughed when she saw a look of horror spread across Tony's face, he hadn't expected her to pee in the water. If only he knew how often she urinated on herself. He quickly jumped out of the tub and peered down at Heather with wide eyes as she laughed at his reaction.

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Heather had stolen a pair of Tony's underwear and a tank top. Her large stomach stretched out the shirt so much that it was almost see through and it didn't help that her normally large breasts were massive. Almost everything about her body was swollen, and for the first time he realized how chubby she looked. It was normal for woman at her stage of pregnancy to be so chubby, since their body held on to as much nutrients and water as it could.

But Heather's new body was not what Tony sat in awe off. Not hungry himself, he pushed his plate away and watched his future bride eat not only her own plate but his as well. She was still hungry by the time she finished his plate and Tony had to order more food. As he watched he thought about how normally picky Heather was, and now it seemed like she ate everything in her sight.

He could remember how she once refused to eat mashed potatoes at a restaurant because they didn't use sour cream and milk to mash them. Sometimes it lead him to be frustrated, because Tony didn't care how it was made as long as it tasted good. This had led them to eat in way more then he normally would. Not that he was complaining because this meant Heather cooked.

She had finally finished after half an hour, placing her fork on her plate a strange look crossing her face. She had scrunched up her mouth her eyes drifting to the side on an imaginary piece of flooring. Tony's mouth also formed the same confused expression.

"Is something wrong?" Tony asked watching Heather's hand press against her tight stomach. She thought for a moment before turning her head to the side, still pressing her hand into her stomach.

"I think so. Maybe I just ate too much?" she mumbled a confused expression still on her face. Tony chuckled; the thought was quite funny to him because normally Heather ate so little she appeared to be starving. Although he knew Heather was more of a snacker than anything.

"I'm sure the kitchen staff think so, you ordered enough food to feed a small family!" he chuckled; Heather rolled her eyes clearly not impressed with his statement, although it was true and she knew it.

"Come here!" she commanded motioning for him to sit with her. Unbeknownst to Tony she silently looked for something else to eat, the urge to stuff something sweet in her mouth. Bewildered by her command he walked over to her, sitting down beside her their legs touching.

Heather suddenly reached out grabbing his hand and pressed it to her stomach. The only way he could describe her stomach was like a thick balloon filled with water and something inside.

Heather guided his hand, pushing on her stomach so harshly he thought that she might burst. He had no idea what she was doing until she stopped, his fingers still digging harshly into her stomach.

"Do you feel that?" she asked watching him nod his head, his mouth open in awe. He could feel the hard lump of baby underneath her skin, he wished he could feel it move more, but the child was settled and ready to come into the world.

"That's the bum, and this right here is a head..." Tony's attention was completely on Heather as she shifted his hand around her stomach showing him where all his child's body parts were. But as he listened to her it also made him think about how he had missed all of her pregnancy. If anything it made him feel like shit, and the desire to make him and Heather to work stronger. He was convinced that if their relationship worked out then he could make another baby with her. He would spend massive amounts of time with his first born, and his now planned second child.

There was another gasp from Heather when she pulled herself away from Tony pressing her hand to her stomach. A look of complete confusion crossed her face and she stood up, her hand neatly tucked under her stomach. She only took a few steps toward the bathroom, ignoring the look of concern on Tony's face when she suddenly buckled.

Her hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder steadying herself with the help of Tony's hand on her elbow. Heather cried digging her fingers into his skin before he felt and heard a warm liquid splash onto the floor and his pants.

For a split second Tony had thought she had peed on him, but when Heather stood up and expressed how much that had hurt with her face slightly pale he understood that her water had broken.

Suddenly Tony went into panic mode and started to run around the hotel room grabbing things and stuffing them into a plastic bag Heather had no idea where he got. It was only until he stood in the living room panic on his face that she said something.

"Tony, what are you doing?" she asked completely calm, this only seemed to add to his panic because he looked at her eyes wide.

"Taking YOU to the hospital!" he blurted dramatically, failing to see the humor when Heather laughed. The carpet was still of covered in fluid, which Heather seemed to have no problem standing in.

"Not yet, I haven't even had my second contraction yet." she said watching Tony carefully. His confusion didn't seem to dwindle, and the smile on Heather's face got wider.

"There is no point in going to the hospital yet, not when my contractions are this far apart. It's best we stay here and relax until their closer together, that way we don't have to stay in a uncomfortable hospital for more hours then we need to." Tony nodded his head in agreement, his brain still trying to process what she had said to him.

This didn't make the wait any easier for him, because even as Heather changed her clothing and attempted to relax. He still held his breath every time she gasped in pain. He would then count how long it took for the next contraction.

He counted from twenty minutes, to ten then finally five. It took a total of six hours for her to get down so low, so when she said it was time he didn't waste any time tugging her towards the car he had bought only hours before.

Any of Tony's friends would have found it hilarious that he was the one in a panic and not Heather. Who appeared to be calmer then a cucumber, even when they arrived at the hospital and a wheel chair was rolled out to her she remained calm.

The room they were put into was small, and luckily she was the only one in it. There was only one bed in the room, and he was glad. If he had seen another bed he would have eyed it carefully eventually paying for the room to remain free of other patients.

A hiss of pain irradiated from Heather's lips and she tightly gripped onto Tony's hand nearly squeezing the life out of it. He pretended that it didn't hurt, but he swore to himself he felt the bones in his hand touch. When the contraction passed he used his free hand and thumb to rub her temple. It was really the only way he could comfort her, a small film of sweat had started to build at her brow and even as she exhaled to release some tension in her body he knew she was uncomfortable.

"Do you want anything?" he asked her, her eyes were closed. She was trying to relax as much as possible. He had no idea how much longer they had to wait, he figured that for the time being he could slip out for a few seconds make a few phone calls, and make sure Heather was as comfortable as possible.

"Chews." she murmured her eyes fluttered open and she watched a confused look cross Tony's face. He had no idea what chews were, and he had never even heard of them.

"The candy machine downstairs with the pink and blue gum pieces inside." her face was completely blank, and Tony knew she was very serious about the candies she was talking about. With a nod of his head and a kiss of her forehead he left the room to make his phone calls and get her some Chews.

Small change was not something Tony Stark carried around let alone Canadian money. Their quarters were strange to him, let alone coined dollars. He fiddled with the machine while he finished up a phone call to Pepper. He needed a baby room ready, and he knew by the time Heather recovered enough to travel home the room would be ready. The only thing he had to do was text Pepper the gender.

Frustrated he turned the dial on the chews with a jerk, holding a paper cup underneath the opening. When they poured into the cup he placed another quarter in the slot, determining that one handful was not enough.

"I'm happy you came." Tony jumped almost dropping the chews and scattering them across the ground. He quickly turned to see Grandmother Bethune standing behind him a smile on her face. He had no idea that she was in Canada let alone in the very hospital Heather was about to give birth in.

For the hundredth time it seemed in the past few hours he was confused again. The woman smiled and reached out a smaller clenched hand for him to be handed something. The idea of being handed something bothered him, and not knowing what it was bothered him more. He could feel a chill up his spine and he silently refused to handle what she was giving him.

Grandmother didn't look impressed by his refusal and with a horrid grin on her face she grabbed Tony's only free hand and with a force he had never experienced before pried his hand open and forced the unknown object in his hand. Tony was horrified.

"You'll need that!" she snapped walking around Tony and out the swishing automatic doors that sat only a few feet behind him. His stomach was still churning at what had just happened when he opened his hand to see what she had given him.

Inside his palm was a single ring with a band of diamonds. The exact ring he had used to propose to Heather. He knew at that moment that she had sinister reasons behind her appearance. She had shown up to ensure that she got her way, and her way was the couple popping out as many babies as possible.

He rolled the ring between his fingers stopping when he entered the room Heather was in. A mass of medical persons had entered the room, and they were preparing for the final stages of birth. In the next few moments Tony would get to see his new child.

Heather looked up at him ignoring questions from a nurse who was trying to position her legs in the right spot. He was still fingering the ring, and nervous she was watching him. He grabbed a few of the chews popping them in his mouth. The taste hit him hard; disgusting.

"I believe this is yours." he said flashing her the ring standing beside her bed, still chewing the abomination in his mouth, his mouth curling in distaste. She nodded her head her much smaller hand grabbing the ring. She studied it for a moment before slipping it on her swollen finger. He couldn't help but lean in for a small kiss, pressing his lips on the corner of hers to their silent agreement to try to be a family.

An uncomfortable silence hung between the two, and the taste in his mouth only got worse. He had gotten the chews but now it seemed she wouldn't be eating them for quite some time. Placing them on the table beside him he pointed to the cup and announced, "These are disgusting by the way."

"I know, I just wanted to see you eat one." she firmly announced, a small chuckle came from one of the nurses before she started to instruct Heather and Tony about what was going to happen. The instructions seemed simple enough from Tony's point of view but when the groans of pain came from Heather and the circulation in his throbbing hand was cut off he regretted the thought.

The next twenty minutes passed so quickly that he could only remember Heather's sweaty legs, the pain in his hand, and the shrill cry of an infant. It seemed the circulation in his hand was returned in an instant and a few short moments the yell of 'It's a boy' then the passing of a naked, wet bloody infant was handed to Heather.

Heather was in a fit of tears and she tried to stop them with her hand that wasn't holding the small screaming creature that slowly calmed down in her arms. Tony was drawn from his wonder when the doctor asked him if he wanted to cut the cord.

It wasn't until moments after this they officially had a clean, healthy and sleeping son. Heather seemed immediatly tired, and after having a few moments with their son to herself asked Tony if he wanted to hold him. As soon as she had ensured he was holding the tiny infant right and Tony was comfortable she fell asleep. Tony couldn't blame her.

"Welcome to the family Sparky." Tony muttered under his breath, and for the first time in his life he felt complete.

* * *

**Six years later**

Tried, Tony stepped into the house rubbing the back of his neck. Like always there was the loud familiar sound of someone in the house. There was a shrill of excitement clearly from a child and as he turned the corner into the living room he caught a quick glimpse of Heather lying on the couch her shirt pulled up around her rib cage, and a mass of colors on her pregnant belly.

Sitting close to the TV was his oldest son who was engrossed by shark week and on the couch with Heather was three children. Two girls and one boy, the girls were twins. The youngest child looked up from the colorful smudges on Heather's belly which they all seemed to be drawn on with marker. He wasn't sure why they were painting her stomach but he didn't question it.

"DA -DA!" he yelled reaching up with colorful hands wanting to be held and as soon as his presence was announced all hell broke loose in the house. Three children came running towards him screaming various different words for father and latching onto any limb they could, each wanting attention.

He could never understand how Heather could do it, because sometimes having children hanging off you all at once was frustrating. His youngest still on the couch seemed no longer interested in his appearance knowing that if he wanted attention his best bet was from his mother.

"Movies in Mom's and Dad's room! Quickly disburse!" Tony yelled, as soon as the words left his mouth three children ran in all different directions to accumulate the necessities. Both parents seemed relieved that the children were no longer hanging off them, all except their year old son who was scribbling around on Heather's stomach.

Heather didn't shift over as Tony sat by her hips studding the doodles of flowers and a large stick family of eight. The last two stick figures incredibly small and pushed off to the very edge of her stomach.

An extra set of twins had come as a surprise, especially paternal twins. If the first set wasn't bad enough they now had to deal with a second set and two other children. But both Tony and Heather wouldn't trade the world for their children. Although their family was large and soon to be even bigger, was filled with so much love. A love that Tony and Heather thought they would never have, and besides it wasn't like they didn't have the money or resources to take care of their small army.

"Ready for movie night Mommy Stark?" he asked Heather who tiredly looked at her husband.

"Bring it on Daddy Stark!" she sighed, he knew she would fall asleep but this way they could all snuggle in the massive bed that easily fit the entire family.

"What about you baby Stark?" Tony asked his son who smiled having no clue what was going on only that he was being talked to. Holding up his marker he laughed handing the dirty marker to his father.


End file.
